


Office Quartermaster General 
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JOAN OF ARC 



FRANCIS a LOWELL 



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BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



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Copyright, 1896, 
By FRANCIS C. LOWELL. 

Ail rights reserved. 



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PREFACE. 

To most persons the life of Joan of Arc is unreal, 
resembling a picturesque legend rather than truthful his- 
tory. In truth, however, the facts of her real life are 
known to a somewhat remarkable degree of certainty and 
in very considerable detail. Pure legends concerning her 
are, indeed, common enough, — they sprang into existence 
within a fortnight of her appearance at Charles's court ; 
but their absurdity can be easily detected, not merely by 
their extravagant improbability, but because they are 
inconsistent with well-known facts. The life of Joan of 
Arc affords a striking illustration of two important his- 
torical principles : first, that legends require the shortest 
possible time for their luxuriant growth, — a contempora- 
neous account being often little less legendary than an 
account separated from the event by a considerable 
lapse of time ; and second, that the wildest and most 
improbable legends may exist beside the most definite and 
well-ascertained historical facts. The popular impression 
concerning Joan and the existence of these numerous 
legends have caused me in this book to cite authorities 
more frequently and more fully than I should otherwise 
have done. 

In the management of proper names I may not hope to 
have succeeded better than other authors who have written 
of the history of one country in the language of another. 
In this matter it is hard to formulate a principle, and 
impossible to live up to it when formulated without falling 
into absurdity. For instance, I find it impossible to write 
of the great ally of the English except as " Philip, duke 
of Burgundy ; " and, if I am to do so, I do not see how I 



IT PREFACE. 

can write of Joan's fatter as " Jacques d'Arc," or of the 
favorite of Charles VII. as " Georges de la Tremoille." 
In the fifteenth century, the particle " de " in " de Bour- 
gogne," " d'Arc," and " de la Tremoille " meant, so far as 
I can perceive, the same thing. I achnowledge, however, 
that " James of Arc " is an awkward locution, and in 
the notes, at any rate, I have sometimes left a French 
name untranslated. 

In December, 1895, I delivered at the Lowell Institute 
four lectures on Joan of Arc, and in preparing them I 
made free use of the manuscript of this book, copying 
sentences and pages into the lectures where I thought 
such use of my material advisable. The invitation to de- 
liver the lectures, however, was given after the book was 
substantially finished. 

January 18, 1896. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEB rxea 

I. The Condition of France ...... 1 

II. DOMBEMY 14 

III. The Voices ......... 27 

rV. Vaucouleurs . 3T 

V. Chinon 50 

VI. Poitiers 64 

VII. The Siege of Orleans "78 

VIII. The Keuef of Orleans 95 

IX. The Campaign of the Loire. — Jargbatj . . . 114 

X. The Campaign of the Loire. — Pat ay . . . 128 

XI. The March to Rheois ...... 139 

XII. MONTEPILLOY 157 

XIII. The Attack on Paris 171 

XIV. St. Pierre le Moustieb and La Charity . . . 180 

XV. Lagny 193 

XVI. COMPIEGNE 206 

XVII. Negotiations for Joan's Pitrchasb .... 223 

XVIII. Beaubevoir 236 

XIX. Rouen , .... 246 

XX. The Beginning of the Trial ..... 257 

XXI. Joan's Examination 277 

XXII. The Articles 296 

XXIII. The Contiction and the Recantation . . • 308 

XXIV. The Relapse and the Execution 326 

XXV. The Rehabilitation ....... 342 

APPENDIX. 

A. The Character op Charles Vil. .... 357 

B. The Insanity or Inspiration of Joan of Arc . 864 

C. Joan of Arc and St. Catherine of Siena . . . 368 

D. The Proposed Canonization of Joan of Arc . . 372 



MAPS. 

TO FACE Plcm 

Northern and Central France . • 1 

Orleans and Vicinity "8 

COMPliGNB AND ViCINITY 206 



ABBREVIATIONS. 

P. = Procfes de condamnation et de rehabilitation de Jeanne d'Arc, 
par Jules Quicherat. As P. vi. I have cited " Mdmoires & consulta- 
tions en faveur de Jeanne d'Arc, publics pour la premiere fois, par 
Pierre Landry d'Arc." Volume i. of M. Quicherat's work contains 
the report of Joan's trial ; volumes ii. and iii. the report of her 
second trial or rehabilitation, with the evidence given therein ; vol- 
umes iv. and v. contain all the other historical evidence, approxi- 
mately contemporary, which he was able to gather concerning her, 
such as letters, documents, accounts, extracts from the chronicles, etc. 
In many cases, I have added to my citation of the volume and page of 
M. Quicherat's work the name of his authority. In volumes ii. and 
iii. the name is that of a witness testifying at Joan's rehabilitation ; 
in volumes iv. and v. that of a chronicler or other writer. 

Luce = Jeanne d'Arc k Domremy, par Simeon Luce, Paris, 1886, 
in octavo. 

Beaucourt = Histoire de Charles VII., par G. du Fresne de Beau- 
court. 




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JOAN OF ARC. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CONDITION OF FRANCE. 

The personality of Joan of Arc was so strong that hei 
life takes its chief interest therefrom rather than from 
her surroundings. But no man can exist apart from his 
circumstances; these must, in any case, be the field of 
his effort, and, in great measure, must determine the 
means which he uses, and the end which he proposes to 
reach. To study the life of Joan of Arc apart from the 
life of her people and her generation is no less absurd 
than to regard her as their type. 

Before the middle of the fifteenth century France was 
hardly a nation. Without a common language, and with 
a boundary shifting and ill-defined, almost its only bond 
of union was its king, and in much of France the king 
was little more than a name. In one province he was a 
great feudal lord with strong castles and great posses- 
sions. In the next province the real power was that of 
some duke or count, who kept royal state, assembled the 
provincial representatives and treated with them, carried 
on war against the king, or neglected him altogether. 
Still another province was under English rule. In the 
same province, indeed, the conditions changed from time 
to time. Sometimes the royal domain was granted away, 
sometimes great feudal appanages reverted to the crown. 
Normandy was won from the English, Poitou was lost 
to them. 



2 JOAN OF ARC. 

The cities, then large and numerous throughout France, 
were usually almost independent of the great lords, and 
even the royal power was often inferior to that of their 
local government. The town councils, chosen by the 
guilds, or by the more prosperous citizens at large, shut 
the gates against the rude soldiers of both king and lord, 
maintained agents at their courts, and considered what 
contribution should be made to the needs of one or the 
other. Originally the municipal charters had been granted 
to offset the power of the nobles, and still the cities served 
this purpose, but if they kept the nobles in check, they 
checked also the growth of national feeling by substitut- 
ing for it a strong local pride. 

Thus France, a country many times as populous and as 
rich as England, was overrun by English armies. Then, 
as in later times, the insular position of England counted 
for much in the wars it carried on, but it had an advan- 
tage quite as great in its fuller national development. 
To speak of England in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
turies as a centralized state seems absurd to us to-day, 
but, compared to France, it was centralized indeed. Its 
nobles were powerful, but not, like the diikes of Bur- 
gundy and Brittany, princes really independent. Its 
towns, except London, were of small importance com- 
pared to the great cities of France, and had less local 
independence. Its language had many dialects spoken 
by the common people, but the students at its universi- 
ties, unlike those of Paris and Toulouse, could under- 
stand each other without recourse to Latin. 

Most of the country won by Edward III. and by the 
Black Prince was recovered for France in the reign of 
Charles V. (1364-1380) by the skill and valor of Dugues- 
clin and Clisson ; ^ Calais in the north and Bordeaux in 
the south, with the country about them, alone remained to 
England. Charles V. did much more than win back 
^ See Labrone, Bergerac sous les Anglais, in 12mo, p. 69. 



THE CONDITION OF FRANCE. 3 

lost territory. With some success, he attempted to or- 
ganize the administration of France, to regulate its 
finances, and to secure justice for all. In the century 
and a haK which separated Philip the Fair from Louis 
XI., he was the only man of ability to sit on the throne, 
and his early death was a calamity to the kingdom. 

Charles VI. was twelve years old when his father died. 
During his minority the country was shame- 
lessly plundered by his uncles, who overthrew 
the system which their brother had tried to establish. 
On coming of age, the young king recalled some of his 
father's old servants, but their rule was short. Weak in 
body and mind, four years of wild debauchery made 
Charles VI. a madman, sometimes raving, sometimes 
idiotic, sometimes with just enough intelligence to move 
the pity of those who saw him. His uncles and the other 
great nobles at once regained power, and preyed again 
upon the distracted country. 

After some years their promiscuous quarrels were re- 
solved into a struggle between the two strongest. Louis, 
duke of Orleans, the king's younger brother, willful and 
licentious, but handsome and brilliant, with manners so 
winning that those who had served him never forgot 
their master, was opposed to Philip, duke of Burgundy, 
the king's youngest uncle, and to Philip's son and suc- 
cessor, John, surnamed the Fearless,^ The country 
owned by the dukes of Burgundy was rich and populous ; 
they ruled the trading cities of Flanders to the north of 
France, and both the duchy and county of Burgimdy to 
the east. Though they were quite as greedy as the duke 
of Orleans or as any other great noble, both Philip and 
John were clever enough to protest in the name of the 
people against some oppressive taxes, the proceeds of 
which they were not able to share. In this way, they 

1 Philip the Bold of Burgundy died in 1404. John the Fearless 
and Louis of Orleans were both born in 1371. 



4 JOAN OF AKC. 

came to represent the general discontent of the people, 
and grew especially popular with the ferocious mob of 
Paris. 

From time to time a sham peace was made between 
the rivals. One Sunday in November, 1407, 
Louis and John together partook of the Eucha- 
rist, having first sworn love and good fellowship. ^ On 
the following Wednesday, the bravos of Duke John way- 
laid and murdered Duke Louis in the streets of Paris. 
Such was the temper of France, that the principal men 
of the kingdom assembled soon afterwards with the duke 
of Burgundy to hear a panegyric on the murder delivered 
by a priest whom John had hired for the occasion. 

Louis of Orleans left faithful servants who, in the 
name of his young sons, prepared to avenge his death. 
For several years the tide of civil war ebbed and flowed 
through northern France and about the walls of Paris. 
Now and then peace was made, to be broken as one party 
or the other made fresh combinations with great nobles 
and princes of the blood. When hardest pressed, both 
sides in turn called the English to their help, a danger- 
ous proceeding, as the English king had never abandoned 
his claim to be king of France. At first the Orleanists 
suffered for want of a leader, but, in 1410, 
Charles, the young duke of Orleans, was mar- 
ried to Bonne, daughter of Bernard, count of Armagnac ; 
and thereafter the count led the opposition to John the 
Fearless, giving the name of Armagnacs to the Orleanist 
partisans. He was a rude nobleman of Gascony, with 
hot southern blood in his veins, quite as selfish as the 
duke of Burgundy and, if possible, even more violent. 
Availing himself of a reaction against the excesses of the 
Parisian mob, he seized the capital and the person of the 
king, and drove John back to his estates. 

The troubles in England during the reigns of Richard 

* See Juvenal des Ursins, Histoire de Charles VI., ed. 1614, p. 235. 



THE CONDITION OF FRANCE. 5 

II. and Henry IV. (1377-1413) prevented an invasion of 
France. Henry V., able and popular, in the struggle 
between Armagnacs and Burgundians found his chance 
to assert what he believed to be his right to the throne, 
and in 1415 entered Normandy. The govern- 
ment of France was in the hands of Armagnac. 
John the Fearless had no wish that his rival should win 
a victory; therefore he intrigued with Henry, and dis- 
suaded his followers from joining the French army. 
After needless delay and with much blundering, an enor- 
mous body of the French nobility stumbled helplessly 
against the well-disciplined English troops at Agincourt, 
and was cut to pieces on the spot. The greatest and 
the bravest of the French nobles were killed or carried 
to England as prisoners. Terrible as was the disaster, 
some Frenchmen rejoiced at it.^ 

The English did not push their success until more than 
a year had passed ; not until 1417 did Henry undertake 
the conquest of France in earnest. Armagnac had kept 
his control of the king, and the furious rivalry between 
himself and Burgundy paralyzed the nation; only the 
local pride of some city here and there enabled it to 
make a brave resistance. As Henry marched in triumph 
through the land, the people naturally blamed Armagnac 
rather than Duke John, and at last they would bear the 
count's rule no longer. The gates of Paris 
were opened by treachery, the Burgiuidian par- 
tisans burst into the city, seized the person of the king, 
and massacred every Armagnac they could find, includ- 
ing the count himself; only the Dauphin Charles, the 
king's last surviving son, a boy of fifteen, was snatched 
from his bed by one of the Armagnac captains, and car- 
ried off into central France. ^ 

These two acts, the capture of the king by John the 

^ See Martin, Hist, France, vi. 22. 

^ See Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris, ann. 1418. 



6 JOAN OF ARC. 

Fearless, and the abduction of the dauphin bv the 
Armagnacs, made more definite the line of separation 
between the two parties. Both the crazy man and the 
weak boy were mere tools in the hands of their masters, 
but each represented certain great classes in the nation, 
both social and geographical. With the duke of Bur- 
gundy was the semblance of royalty, not only the king, 
but the vain and licentious queen, whose petty mind was 
now filled with hatred of her son. On the duke's side, 
also, was the mob of Paris, and the turbulent democracy 
of the cities of northern France; with him were the 
nobles of Burgundy, of Picardy, and of Flanders, and 
some enemies of Armagnac in the south. With the 
Armagnacs was that feeling of hopeful and future loyalty 
which clings to the heir of the throne ; with them, also, 
were the men of central France, both nobles and common 
people, some of the southern nobles, most of the southern 
cities not in the power of the English, and not a few of 
the most respectable burghers in the north. More im- 
portant than all, the larger and better part of the civil 
servants of the crown, judges, clerks, secretaries, and the 
like, sided with the Dauphin for fear of the arrogance of 
Duke John and the violence of the mob of Paris. At 
the moment, these men were overborne by the fierce 
Armagnac captains, the vindictive servants of Louis of 
Orleans, and the treacherous courtiers who made a play- 
thing of the wretched Dauphin, but their power slowly 
increased, and at last they founded modern France.^ 

On both sides the leaders had lost all patriotism. 
Both the duke and the Armagnacs tried to buy the help 
of Henry by the offer of the best provinces of France ; 
though willing to negotiate with both, Henry would 
make no agreement with either, but marched steadily 
onward. As city after city fell into his hands, signs of 

1 See Juvenal des Ursins, 455 ; also P^cbenard, Jean Juvenal, 77 
et seq. 



THE CONDITION OF FRANCE. 7 

real patriotism appeared among the people at large, and 
forced bath John and the Armagnacs to pretend to wish 
for reconciliation. 

After some negotiation, the duke met the Dauphin on 
the bridge over the Yonne at Montereau, some 

. 1419. 

fifty miles southeast of Paris. Every precau- 
tion had been taken against treachery, stout palisades 
had been put up, and but ten men on each side were 
admitted to the conference. All was in vain. An old 
servant of Louis of Orleans, taking advantage of the 
duke's arrogant words and bearing, split open his head 
with an axe. This was no chance outburst of fury : the 
plot had been laid for months, and included some of the 
duke's retinue.^ 

The murder of John the Fearless had its natural con- 
sequences. Philip, surnamed the Good, his son and 
successor, a capable and ambitious young man of twenty- 
three, at once offered to Henry terms so favorable that the 
English king accepted them. In 1420 a treaty 

. . 1420. 

was signed at Troyes, whereby Henry, married 

to the daughter of Charles VI., was declared the heir of 
the crazy king and regent of France. By this act, forced 
upon Charles VI., Duke Philip hoped to glut his ven- 
geance for the murder of Montereau. Paris was deliv- 
ered to the English, and the allied English and Burgun- 
dian armies together proceeded to the conquest of the 
rest of France. 

At first the Armagnac leaders showed some energy. 
They took the Dauphin into Languedoc, and by exhibiting 
him to the people won many to his support. They were, 

^ See Beaucourt, ii. 651. M. de Beaucourt doubts the authenticity 
of the document he publishes, and asks how an exoneration of 
Robert le Magon could have come into the hands of La Tr^raoille. 
It was made out July 2, 1426, and in August La Tr^moille violently 
seized Le Magon's person. May he not have taken it from him ? 
The want of the king's sigpiature proves nothing ; it was often 
omitted. 



8 JOAN OF ARa 

however, utterly incapable of governing the country ; not 
satisfied with their exploit at Montereau, they tried in 
like manner to rid themselves of the duke of Brittany, 
a powerful prince, almost independent, whose alliance 
they might have won by fair dealing. The duke escaped, 
and, after a time, naturally followed Philip of Burgundy 
into the English camp.^ In spite of one or two checks, 
Henry seemed on the point of conquering 
France, when he died suddenly, in the flower of 
his manhood. Charles VI. outlived him but a few weeks. 

Henry VI. of England, by the treaty of Troyes king 
of rrance,2 a baby nine months old, was now the head of 
the Anglo-Burgundian alliance. His uncle, John, duke 
of Bedford, was his regent in France, a man shrewd, 
determined, patient, and temperate. The task of Bedford 
was harder than his brother's had been, for, after the 
treaty of Troyes, Henry V. had ruled in the name of 
Charles VI., whose right to the throne was undoubted, 
while Bedford must act for a foreigner, and against the 
natural head of the royal family. 

In spite of this advantage, the affairs of Charles VTI., 

as he was now called, went from bad to worse. 
1422-1425. TT 1 . . n n 1 . T 

He was about twenty years old, and his disposi- 
tion began to manifest itself. Son of a vain and licen- 
tious mother, born when his father had been ten years a 
madman, the boy grew up among the dissolute brawlers 
at court. Throughout life he was what his parentage 
and his education naturally made him, weak in body and 
mind, now luxurious and fond of display, now melancholy 
and sullen, "drenching his passions with drunkenness 

^ The plot against the duke of Brittany was made in 1420, and he 
did not join the English until 1423. The conduct of the Armagnac 
leaders, however, always rankled in him. See Cosneau, Connetable 
de Richemont, 60, 74. 

2 Of course he was not Henry VI. of France, but properly Henry 
n. In accordance with the custom of the time, he was usually 
Btyled simply Henry. 



THE CONDITION OF FRANCE. 9 

and debauchery, stupid with self-indulgence and slothful- 
ness," as said a contemporary historian by no means 
unfriendly. 1 He was a coward ; in his boyhood he 
had been dragged into the field by the fierce men about 
him, whose bravery was their only virtue, but, as soon 
as he could make his wishes respected, he withdrew into 
safe castles, where he spent most of his life. Plainly, 
France could expect nothing from him. From the leaders 
of the Armagnacs she could expect little more. Most 
of them were adventurers, whose only object was to get 
land and money. They caused the king to grant to them 
the royal domain, they pillaged the treasury, and stole 
the money intended for the army.^ The boldest of them 
carried on a guerrilla warfare against the English, and in 
so doing mercilessly plundered, tortured, and killed the 
wretched peasantry. In the two years which followed 
his accession, Charles lost several provinces. 

The English success aroused the patriotism of the com- 
mon people and the jealousy of the great nobles, even of 
those who up to this time had sided with Burgundy and 
the English. An opportune quarrel between one of Bed- 
ford's brothers and Philip greatly irritated the duke with 
his allies. While he did not break with them for more 
than ten years to come, he looked with increasing dread 
upon English success, grew to believe that it was possible 
to be reconciled to Charles, and intrigued to gain power 
at his court. From this time forward he kept faith with 
neither party. 

All these causes weakened the power which the old 
leaders of the Armagnacs had hitherto kept. Even at 
court they were not unopposed. Yolande of Aragon, 
duchess dowager of Anjou, the king's mother-in-law, and 
a woman of real ability, knew well that it was vain to 

* Basin, Hist. Charles VII., i. 54, 116. See Appendix A. 
« See Beaucourt, ii. 69 ; Vallet de Viriville, Charles VII., i. 162 ; 
^etey, Ecorcheurs sous Charles VII., ii. 449. 



10 JOAN OF AKC. 

fight with the English, unless aided by the great feudal 
lords, and that these would never submit to be governed 
by political adventurers and captains of banditti. With 
Yolande were the civil servants, as we should call them, 
the permanent officials; with her, also, were the repre- 
sentative assemblies, both of the kingdom and of the 
provinces, who knew how terrible was the corruption and 
disorder everywhere.^ By vigorous diplomacy the old 
favorites were frightened and outwitted, and the feeble 
king was handed over to the control of Arthur, 
count of Richemont,^ brother of the duke of 
Brittany and brother-in-law of Philip of Burgundy. 

The character of Richemont, thus made constable of 
France, was not immaculate. Already he had changed 
sides more than once. Ambitious and overbearing, he 
would tolerate no rival at court, while his greed was only 
less than that of his predecessors.^ He had, however, a 
real sense of responsibility, and he addressed himself 
seriously to the task of beating back the English. His 
influence secured the support of Brittany, while Philip 
was induced to grant a truce covering a large part of the 
eastern frontier of France.* 

Some of the old favorites still lingered at court and 

* See Pdchenard, Jean Juvenal, 82, 198. 

2 The real title of Arthur of Brittany was Earl of Richmond in 
Yorkshire, a title conferred at sundry times on various members of 
the ducal house of Brittany. See Doyle, Official Baronage, iii. 116. 
At this time Arthur's right to the title probably was not acknow- 
ledged in England. The gallicized word " Richemont " is always 
used by French historians. 

' For Richemont, see Cosneau, Connetable de Richemont, and a 
review of the book, Bibl. Ecole des Charles, xlix. 261. He revoked 
the grants made to former favorites. Beaucourt, ii. 122. 

* In 1426 Richemont told Philip that he had driven from Charles's 
court all persons disagreeable to the duke. Philip ought, therefore, 
to act fairly by the royal cause. Under no circumstances would 
Richemont allow the English to triumph. The letter is, on the whole, 
that of a forceful and sensible man. Beaucourt, ii. 375; Flancher, 
Hist. Bou^gogne, iv., Ixii. 



THE CONDITION OF FRANCE. 11 

easily gained the ear of the weak king, who never liked 
the manners of the constable. They hindered the nego- 
tiations with Philip, and were supposed to hamper the 
constable's operations in the field. Richemont did not 
stick at trifles. One favorite he dragged from court and 
drowned in the river, another he slaughtered almost be- 
fore the eyes of Charles. But the third favorite, George 
of La Tremoille,^ a nobleman of some importance, proved 
too strong for the fierce Breton, and gained firm control 
of the wretched king and of the miserable remnant of 
France still left to Charles. The duke of Brittany went 
back to the English alliance in high dudgeon, while La 
Tremoille spent the royal treasure in carrying on a pri- 
vate war with the constable, who remained nominally 
loyal. 2 

In 1428 France was come to this condition. Nor- 
mandy, Paris and the country about it, Perche, 
Alen<jon, most of Maine and Champagne, were 
in the hands of the English. Brittany was ruled by an 
independent prince, their somewhat reluctant ally. Pi- 
oardy and Flanders on the north, the duchy and county 
of Burgundy on the east, belonged to Philip the Good, 
a man jealous of English success, but still anxious to 
avenge his father's murder, and irritated by the disgrace 
of Richemont, his brother-in-law, though willing to in- 
trigue with La Tremoille. The duke of Lorraine had 
been cajoled and bullied into acknowledging Henry VI. ; 
even his heir, Rene of Anjou, Charles's brother-in-law, 
yielded at last. Speaking generally, nearly all France 
north of the Loire, and all the country east of that river, 
as far south as Lyons, denied the right of Charles.^ 

1 For La Tremoille, see Beaucourt, ii. 144, 128. He was born 
1385. 

2 See Quicherat, Rodrigo de Villandrando, 30 ; Loiseleur, Compte 
des depenses faites par Charles VII., 61, 62. 

8 Longnon, Rev. Quest. Hist., October, 1875, 444 ; and see the map 
published in Wallou, Jeanne d'Arc, 6d. illust., 412. 



12 JOAN OP ARC. 

This was not all. Bordeaux had been in English hands 
two centuries and a half, and no city in England was 
more loyal to Henry. Much of the surrounding country 
was English, while the rest of southwestern France was 
ruled by nobles whom neither party could trust. In the 
southeast, Provence was practically an independent state. 

The remainder of France, the country south of the 
Loire between the Garonne and the Rhone, together with 
Dauphiny, acknowledged Charles VII. At a safe dis- 
tance from the enemy, in some strong castle, the king 
passed his time in idleness, in debauchery, and in melan- 
choly brooding over his troubles. His master, La Tre- 
moille, plundered France, betrayed it to Burgundy, and 
dealt privately with the English to save his own posses- 
sions from attack.^ Leagued with him were other cour- 
tiers, who in humbler degree imitated his greed and his 
treachery. The great nobles stood aloof. Here and 
there some general in the field tried to do his duty 
against the English without money and without men. 
Most of the captains, however, even when faithful to 
Charles, were by habit unspeakable ruffians, far more 
terrible to the wretched people than to their own enemies, 
and as ready to hire out for j)rivate warfare as to take 
the field against the English. More than once the king 
was compelled to ransom his servants from the hands of 
his own soldiers.2 

In the cities was constant terror. Seldom would the 
burghers open their gates to admit even friendly soldiers. 
Nearly every city in northern France had been besieged, 
some of them many times, and many of them had been 
sacked by Armagnacs, Burgundians, or English. Yet in 
the cities alone was there a hope of safety. The open 
country became a desert, briars choked up what once 
were fertile fields, and the peasants starved or were tor- 

1 See Les La Tremoille pendant cinq siecles, 171 et seq. 

2 See Quicherat, Rodrigo de Villandrando, 30. 



THE CONDITION OF FRANCE. 13 

tured to death by the French banditti, or rose in blind 
i-evolt and were slaughtered by English troops.^ Out 
of this stress came at last French patriotism and the cen- 
tralized power of the French king; but, at the moment 
when both patriotism and king seemed weakest, the Eng- 
lish sent a strong army under their best captains to force 
the barrier of the Loire and end the struggle. With this 
intent they laid siege to Orleans. 

1 See Basin, i. 32,45; Jean Chartier, i. 175; Cosneau, 236, 241; 
Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris, ann. 1419 ; Tuetey, Ecorcheurs sous 
Charles VII. All contemporary accounts of France speak of the 
utter misery of the country, especially the open country. In 1444 a 
truce was made with the English, and the peasants went wild with 
delight. Basin, i. 161. 



CHAPTER II. 

DOMREMT. 

The village of Domremy lies in the valley of tlie 
Meuse, where the Vair enters the larger stream. Through 
rich, green meadows, about a mile wide, the sluggish 
waters of the river flow in many small channels, which 
change their course at flood-time from year to year. Be- 
hind the meadows, east and west, rise low, gentle hills, 
two or three hundred feet high, so flat at the top that 
they seem to mark the original level of the land, through 
which the river and its tributaries have forced their way. 
Just at the foot of this low, sloping wall of hills, on the 
very edge of the meadows, lies the little village, made 
up to-day of forty or fifty houses, as it was four hun- 
dred and fifty years ago. Never important enough to be 
walled, it straggles along the great highroad from Langres 
to Verdun,^ and along a narrow, crooked, irregular lane 
behind it. 

In 1412 the slopes of the hills and the flat land at their 
top were well covered with woods. Above each little vil- 
lage on the banks of the Meuse, above Domremy, Maxey, 
Greux, Burey, and the rest, stretched the forest which 
still keeps the name of the village whose inhabitants it 
supplied with firing four or five centuries ago. 

The peasants of Domremy raised crops of corn, and 
there was a vineyard near by; each family kept fowls 
and bees, but their principal wealth was in their cattle. 
These fed together on the rich pastures of the river-bot- 
tom, and were tended in turn by the children of the vil- 
^ Luce, /. a Domremy, xx. 



DOMREMY. 15 

lage. Such is the custom to-day. The houses were of 
stone with thatched or tiled roofs; they were small, of 
one or two or three rooms, and sometimes there was a 
low garret overhead. The furniture was simple : a few 
stools and benches, a table or a pair of trestles with a 
board to cover them, a few pots and pans of copper, and 
some pewter dishes. The housewife had in her chest 
two or three sheets for her feather-bed, two or three ker- 
chiefs, a cloak, a piece of cloth ready to be made into 
whatever garment was most needed, and a few buttons 
and pins. Often there was a sword in the corner, or a 
spear or an arblast, but the peasants were peaceful, sel- 
dom waged war, and often were unable even to resist 
attack.^ 

Under the feudal system, every foot of land had many 
owners, each holding it of a superior lord, until the sov- 
ereign himself was reached. The peasants of Domremy 
were vassals of the noble family of Bourlemont, whose 
castle, some four miles to the south, still stands on a 
wooded headland which juts out into the flat meadows of 
the Meuse. To the same family belonged the larger vil- 
lage of Greux, half a mile north of Domremy, forming 
with it but one parish. ^ 

The lords of Bourlemont held their lands of more than 
one overlord. Their castle they held directly of the king 
of France ; not so Domremy. It is probable that nearly 
the whole of this village lay south of an insignificant 
rivulet which separated Greux, a possession of the bishop 
of Toul, from the duchy of Bar. The duke of Bar was 
thus the overlord of Domremy, but for this part of his 
duchy he, in turn, owed allegiance to the king of France. 

The position of this rivulet and the precise feudal rela- 

* See Luce, xliv., HH. 262, and the claims for damages in the 
depositions printed by Tuetey, Ecorcheurs sous Charles VII. 

2 P. i. 46, J.'s test. See Lepage, J. est-elle Lorraine f 2de dissert.i 
301. 



16 JOAN OP ARC. 

tion of Domremy have been the subject of endless eontro* 
versy. Its lord lived in France, its bishop was a prince 
of the Empire, the provost was an officer of the duke of 
Bar, while the bailiwick, in which it was included, in- 
cluded also territory more directly dependent uj)on the 
French crown. From year to year, moreover, king and 
duke, bishop and bailiff, tried to extend their several 
jurisdictions, and so time increased the natural confusion 
of the feudal system. It is quite clear, however, that 
the peasants did not care whether they were separated 
from the king of France by one or more intermediate 
vassals. Their speech was French; their sympathies 
looked west rather than east; even in Lorraine, on the 
other side of the Meuse, the feeling for France was warm, 
though the duchy of Lorraine was no part of the king- 
dom, but belonged to the Holy Roman Empire.^ 

^ The people of Maxey sur Meuse, less than a mile from Dom- 
remy, seem to have favored the Burgundians ; but see p. 26, infra. 

The controversy concerning the precise political relations of Dom- 
remy has produced an immense number of pamphlets, some of them 
written very intemperately. For instance, one writer has intimated 
that those who deny that Joan was born in Champagne are guilty 
of blasphemy. Georges, Jeanne d'Arc consideree au point de vue 
franco - champenois, 632. In fact, so great was the confusion in 
the political geography of the valley of the Meuse, that the same 
man might, not unreasonably, call himself a Frenchman, a resident 
in the duchy of Lorraine, in the duchy of Bar, in the province of 
Champagne, and in the bishopric of Toul, all at once. Under these 
circumstances, to seek to determine the political relations of Dom- 
remy by the casual expressions of people living in the neighborhood 
is absurd. No evidence except that of title-deeds and of the like 
formal documents is worth considering. Unfortunately, the search 
for such evidence, though extensive, has not been quite thorough, 
and some minor questions have not yet been settled beyond possibility 
of doubt. In the light of the evidence thiis far collected the matter 
stands somewhat as follows : — 

In the thirteenth century much the larger part, perhaps the whole, 
of Domremy belonged to the duchy of Bar, while Greux and perhaps 
A small part of Domremy belonged to the temporalities of the bishop- 



DOMKEMY. 17 

The relation of the men of Domremy to the house of 
Bourlemont was friendly. Their dues were heavy, it is 

rie of Toul. The line which divided the duchy from the bishopric 
followed the course of a small brook, called the Three Fountains 
Brook, which then entered the Meuse at the northern end of the 
village of Domremy, but which, in the last century, was deflected 
considerably to the southward. Chapellier, Etude hist, et geog. sur 
Domremy ; lb., Etude sur la veritable nationalite de J.; Luce, 281, 282, 
284 ; De Pange, Patriotisme franfais en Lorraine, 21, 63. 

In 1301 the duke of Bar was compelled to do homage to the king 
of France for all that part of his duchy which lay on the left bank of 
the Meuse, including Domremy. Thereafter Domremy south of the 
brook belonged to that part of the duchy which, in the technical lan- 
guage of feudalism, " moved " from the kingdom of France. The 
district north of the brook still belonged to the bishop of Toul. Both 
Domremy and Greux continued to belong to the family of Bourle- 
mont, which held lands of many overlords. Chapellier, ubi supra. 

Of the three persons concerned, the king of France, the duke of 
Bar, and the bishop of Toul, the king was the strongest and the 
bishop the weakest. At some time which cannot be fixed precisely, 
probably early in the fifteenth century, Greux passed out of the 
temporal power of the bishop of Toul, and became a subject of dis- 
pute between the king and the duke. The king's officers were always 
seeking to extend their jurisdiction, while the duke, now become 
duke of Lorraine, and therefore a powerful and independent prince, 
sought to consolidate his possessions and to free himself from French 
control. The duke claimed both Greux and Domremy, while the 
king claimed both as integral parts of his dominions, and not simpty 
as estates " moving " from them. There were vicissitudes in the 
controversy, but at length the Three Fountains Brook seems to have 
been agreed upon as the boundary, north of which the king could do 
as he pleased, while south of it he had only the shadowy rights of a 
suzerain. Chapellier, Etude hist., 19 et seq. ; Lepage, J. est-elle 
Lorraine? 2de dissert. ; Luce, xxx. Li the latter part of the six- 
teenth century, even these were renounced, and the territory south of 
the brook became incorporated in the independent duchy of Lor- 
raine. (In 1571 and 1575. See Lepage, ubi supra, 340.) About 
two hundred years later (in 1766) the whole of this duchy, Dom- 
remy included, was finally joined to France. 

Joan was born, therefore, a subject of the duke of Bar, and, only 
remotely, of the king of France. As has been said, however, this 
made no difference in her feelings and in those of her neighbors. 



18 JOAN OF AEC. 

true. Twice a year a tax must be paid on each animal 
drawing a cart; the lord's harvest must be gathered, his 
hay cut and stored, firewood drawn to his house, fowls 
and beef and bacon furnished to his table. Those who 
had no carts must carry his letters.^ Services like these 
were the common duty of all peasants. Their lord owed 
them some sort of safeguard, and he lived among them. 
The walls of his castle were in sight; even in Domremy 
he had a little fortress or "strong house," called the 
Castle of the Island, over which they were compelled to 
mount guard, and to which they could flee in time of 
danger.^ The lord of Bourlemont with his wife and her 
maids often danced under a gigantic beech-tree near the 
village, where, as the legend went, his ancestor used to 
hold converse with a fairy. On Mid-Lent Sunday, or 

Standing by her father's house, one of her brothers could probably 
have thrown a stone across the Three Fountains Brook, and into the 
debatable land of Greux. Thither Joan went to church for months, 
and, while watching the cattle in the meadows, she may well have 
crossed the almost imaginary boundary line twenty times a day. In 
spite of the evidence of local quarrels, it is hard to believe that the 
men of Maxey (for the feudal situation of Maxey see Lepage, 2de 
dissert., 287, 288) across the meadows really differed in national 
polities from the men of Domremy ; it is certain that the men of 
Domremy and Greux altogether agreed. Had Joan happened to be 
born north of the brook, the political influence which surrounded her 
would have been precisely the same. (In addition to the authorities 
above given, see the monographs of M. Athanase Renard and of 
M. Lepage ; Georges, J. est-elle champenoise ou lorraine ? ; J. au 
■point de vue franco-champenois ; Luce, France pendant la guerre de 
cent ans, 1st ser., 263 et seq. ; P. Landry d'Arc, Culte de J., 28, note ; 
Bourgaut, Guide du pelerin a Domremy, 24 ; Misset, /. champenoise.') 

^ Luce, 285. The will of one of the lords of Bourlemont, made in 
1399, provides that if the people of Domremy can show that they 
have been unjustly compelled to give him two dozen goslings, resti- 
tution shall be made. Luce, 19. See, also, Ayroles, Vraie Jeanne. 
d'Arc, ii. 90. 

* P. i. 66, J.'s test. See Luce, France pendant la guerre de cent 
ans, 274 et seq. ; ChapeUier, Etude hist, et geog. sur Domremy, 14 ; 
Servais, Annates du Barrois, 5. 42. 



DOMREMY. 19 

Fountain Sunday, as they called it, the boys and girls 
went thither also, hung garlands on the branches of the 
fairy tree, ate their cakes in its deep shade, and drank 
the waters of a neighboring fountain which healed the 
sick.i The life of noble and peasant in the Middle Ages 
was monotonous and miserable enough, but by moments 
it was light-hearted and picturesque. 

Each little village had its officers, chosen from the 
most substantial and responsible of its people. Thus 
Domremy had its mayor, its sheriff, and its dean, though 
probably there were not sixty men of full age in the 
place. Early in the fifteenth century, the dean of Dom- 
remy was one James, or Jacob, called of Arc,^ very 
likely from the town of Arc en Barrels. He was born at 
Ceffonds in Champagne, and no one knows how he came 
to live in Domremy, fifty miles from his birthplace. 
Near the beginning of the century, being then about five 
and twenty, he married Isabel of Vouthon, a village four 
or five miles northwest of Domremy. Of his family 
there is no authentic trace ; the relatives of Isabel were 
humble people, carpenters and tilers; one reached the 
dignity of a curacy, and another became a monk.^ 

The couple prospered. They had a good house of 
three or four rooms, close by the church, some meadow 
land, and cattle, of course. James of Arc gained the 
respect of his new neighbors. When they had a lawsuit 
to carry on, when the community wished to make a con- 

1 P. ii. 399, Thevenin ; 404, Thiesselin. See 390, n., 391, n. 

2 In adopting the spelling d'Arc rather than Dare, I have followed 
the great majority of French anthorities. So Quicherat (see Georges, 
/. est-elle champenoise ? 4), Beaucourt, Wallon, Luce, Boucher de Mo- 
landon, Sorel, A. Renard, Lfopold Delisle, Georges, Fabre, Ayroles, 
and many others ; contra, Vallet de Viriville, Villiaumd, Lepage, 
Lescure. Apart from French usage, the English locution, Joan of 
Arc, is pretty well established. 

^ P. ii. 388, Morel ; Luce, xxxvii., 1. ; Labourasse, Vouthon-haut, 
149 et seq. ; Boucher de Molandon, Famille de J. ; lb., Jacques d'Arc. 



20 JOAN OF ARC. 

tract, James of Arc was one of the committee to manage 
the affair. As dean he commanded the watch, collected 
the taxes, and inspected the weights and measures. That 
influence in a rural community which belongs to a man 
a little richer and a little more successful than most of 
his neighbors, James of Arc earned and kept.^ 

He had several children. The oldest son, named after 
his father, and called Jacquemin, for sake of distinction,* 
was born very early in the century. John was the second 
son; Peter, the youngest child, was born about 1413. 
Apparently, there was a daughter Catherine, not much 
younger than her brother Jacquemin, who became the wife 
of a neighbor, and died soon after her marriage. ^ About 
the feast of the Epiphany, 1412,^ Isabel gave 
birth to another daughter. In the church of 
the village the child was baptized Joan or Janet by John 
Minet, probably the curate. She had four godfathers 
and as many godmothers, a number befitting the impor- 
tance of her father in the neighborhood. They were not 
all from Domremy ; two were of Greux, the next village, 
where one served as mayor. John Barre was of Neuf- 
chateau, a small town seven miles to the southward; 
another godparent was the wife of a squire.* 

There are legends enough concerning the childhood of 

Joan of Arc, but we know little of it until she 

was twelve or thirteen years old. She learned 

Our Father, and Ave Maria, and the Creed from her 

1 Luce, cliv. 97; France pendant la guerre decent ans, 279. Ayroles, 
Vraie Jeanne d^Arc, ii. 93, unduly depreciates the office of dean. 

2 P. V. 151, 220. Peter was younger than Joan, v. 228. He 
could not have been much younger, or he would not have served in 
the army. The existence and early death of Catherine are pretty 
well established. Boucher de Molandon, Famille de J., 72. 

' P. i. 46, J.'s test.; v. 116, Boulainvilliers. 1412 is the commonly 
accepted date, though it is impossible to be quite sure. 

4 Luce, Uv. 98, 355 ; P. i. 46, J.'s test. ; ii. 395, Estellin ; 398, 
Thevenin ; 429, Joyart. 



DOMHEMY. 21 

mother ; she played with the other children on holidays, 
and with them she tended the cattle at pasture.^ For 
the rest, we know only what other people living in 
the valley of the Meuse, men and women and children, 
thought and felt in the years between 1412 and 1425. 

Joan was three years old when Henry V. invaded 
France and won the battle of Agineourt. For two or 
three years afterwards, the war was carried on in the 
northwest of the kingdom, and the valley of the Meuse 
was little disturbed. Even in time of peace, not infre- 
quently some lord would ravage the lands of his enemy's 
vassals, but every one must take his chance of a mishap 
like that. Thus in the village of Maxey, just across the 
river, and less than a mile from Domremy, a battle was 
fought in 1419 between the followers of two quarrelsome 
noblemen. One of these, Robert of Saarbruck, lord of 
Commercy, took some thirty prisoners, whom he held to 
ransom, among them the squire, husband of Joan's god- 
mother. At this time Domremy escaped.^ 

The alliance between Philip of Burgundy and Henry 
v., and the treaty of Troyes, made in 1420, opened east- 
ern France to the ravages of war, at the same time civil 
and foreign. Louis, duke of Bar and cardinal bishop 
of Verdun, the feudal lord of Domremy, tried to keep 
peace with both parties, but the times were too troubled 
for neutrality. An embassy sent him by Philip of Bur- 
gundy was waylaid on its return by the lord of Com- 
mercy and by Robert of Baudricourt. The latter was a 
partisan of the Armagnacs, and a soldier of fortune, who 
held the little city of Vaucouleurs for the dauphin. In 
vain the cardinal disavowed the outrage ; in vain he paid 
the ambassadors' ransom: Philip of Burgundy would 

1 P. i. 46, 67, J.'s test. 

2 Luce, Ixiv. 301. There was a tree near Neuf chateau called the 
partisans' oak, which took its name from the men who were hanged 
on it. Lescure, Jeanne Dare, 48. 



22 JOAN OF ARC. 

hear no excuse, and the cardinal was forced to take 
sides with the Armagnacs. The Burgundians invaded 
his duchy, and he summoned to his aid " the most cruel 
and least pitiful of all the Armagnac captains," the 
Gascon Stephen of VignoUes, called La Hire. This 
man, of whom we shall hear much more, was famous 
throughout France for his bravery, his brutal rapacity, 
and his savage humor. ^ 

Neither La Hire nor his Burgundian rivals discrimi- 
nated between friend and foe. Terrified by the outrages 
of his new allies, the weary cardinal resigned his duchy 
to Rene of Anjou, a boy of twelve, and constituted the 
duke of Lorraine the boy's guardian. ^ Charles of Lor- 
raine was soon persuaded to swear allegiance to Henry 
V. , but his action had little effect on the freebooters, or 
"skinners," who were ravaging the duchy of Bar. Up 
and down the valley of the Meuse they rode, pretending 
revenge for hostile attack, but in reality gratifying their 
greed of booty and their lust of cruelty. Their deeds 
make our ears tingle even now, whether the story is read 
in the rhetorical narrative of a chronicler, in the prosaic 
minutes of a judicial inquest, or in the preamble of the 
pardons which they always got for the asking. They 
drove off all the cattle, they burnt the crops, either to 
light their road or in mere wantonness, and we know the 
contents of each peasant's house by the list of his poor 
belongings which they destroyed.^ This was the most 
humane part of their work. "These men," wrote a 
statesman of the day, "under pretense of blackmail and 
so forth, seized men, women, and little children, regard- 
less of age and sex ; violated women and girls ; killed hus- 
bands and fathers before their wives and daughters ; car- 

1 Luce, Ixiv., Ixvii. 76, 306 ; Journ. Bourg., ann. 1431. See Mon< 
Btrelet, Bk. II. ch. xxii. 
^ Luce, Ixix., Ixxii. 
8 See Luce, 262, 273. 



DOMREMT. 23 

ried off nurses, and left their children to die of hunger ; 
took pregnant women, put them in the stocks, let their 
offspring die without baptism, and then threw mother 
and child into the river; seized priests and monks, put 
them to the torture, and beat them until they were maimed 
or driven mad. Some they roasted, dashed out the teeth 
of others, and others they beat with great clubs. God 
knows what cruelty they wrought."^ 

The wretched men of Domremy were almost defense- 
less. James of Arc and another well-to-do peasant hired 
of the lady of Bourlemont the "Castle of the Island," the 
fortified house and court-yard already mentioned, stand- 
ing between the village and the river, wherein they could 
take refuge with their cattle, and try to keep themselves 
against sudden attack. Joan's oldest brother, Jacquemin, 
and four other villagers went surety for the rent, which 
was considerable.^ In 1423 the men of Domremy and 
Greux gave a bond to the lord of Commercy, a ruffian 
whose whole life was spent in robbery and cruelty. By 
it these villages were bound to pay a hearth tax for the 
immunity granted them, and upon it the principal men of 
the two places, James of Arc among them, offered them- 
selves as sureties. Such bonds were openly given and 
received. This was executed before a notary of the eccle- 
siastical court of Toul, and, with fine legal irony, is ex- 
pressed to be given "with good will, and without any 
force, constraint, or guile whatsoever." Very likely sim- 
ilar bonds were given by the men of Domremy to other 
noble robbers. We are told that these "put to ransom a 
poor village in eight or ten different places, and fired the 
village and church if the blackmail was not paid."^ 

^ Jean Juvenal des Ursins, in Beancourt, iii. 389, 390. 

' Luce, France "pendant la guerre de cent ans, 277. 

8 Luce, Ixxvi. 97, 359 ; Beaucourt, iii. 389 ; Tuetey, Ecorcheurs, i. 
50, 89, 94, 95, 157 ; Thomas, Etats provinciaux de la France centrale, 
i. 325 ; Bibl. Ec. Chartes, t. v. 24 ; "A Successful Highwayman in the 



24 JOAN OF ARC. 

The Castle of the Island and the promise of Robert of 
Commercy were scant protection to the men of Domremy, 
though they could find no better. By good fortune, 
rather than through any precaution, the village escaped 
for several years, but its time was sure to come. Every 
traveler that passed along the great highroad through 
Domremy brought news of fresh horrors. One day Joan 
heard of the death of her cousin's husband, killed within 
two years of his marriage.^ At times the sky to the 
northward smoked from the burning villages, and the 
lieutenant of the duke of Bar forbade the peasants to 
light a fire, lest the freebooters should use it to destroy 
the neighborhood.^ 

As has been said, the plundering was indiscriminate. 
The wretched countryman neither knew nor cared if it 
was Englishman, Burgundian, or Armagnac who burnt his 
house before his eyes and his children in it. Indeed, the 
ruffians changed sides so often that at times they hardly 
remembered which master they were pretending to serve. 
Speaking generally, however, there were degrees in the 
brutality which possessed the soldiers of all parties. The 
English at this time usually kept the appearance of a 
regular army under some sort of discipline. The Bur- 
gundian irregulars served a master who commonly paid 
his troops, and who tried to control them by himself or 
his lieutenants. The Armagnacs, those who acknow- 
ledged Charles VII. for king, knew weU that he was too 
poor to pay them, too cowardly to lead them in the field, 
and was ready to pardon any outrage they might think it 
worth while to confess. Naturally, therefore, the true 
soldiers of fortune, men hating authority and reckless as 
they were cruel, more and more inclined to the side of 
Charles, and committed the worst outrages in his name. 

Middle Ages," Atlantic Monthly, Nov. 1890. For Robert, see Du- 
mont, Hist. Commercy, i. 209 et seq. 

* Luce, Lxxiv. ' Luce, 142. 



DOMREMY. 25 

For all this, the common people of France year by year 
attached themselves more earnestly to the cause of 
Charles VII. Before the English invasion, while Ar- 
magnacs and Burgundians fought for the rule of the 
kingdom, and for the guardianship of the crazy king, 
both parties were willing to betray France to the English 
if they might get some temporary advantage. Even after 
the battle of Agincourt their intrigues continued, and 
all patriotism seemed dead ; only the civic pride of some 
city like Rouen defended it against Henry V. By the 
murder of John of Burgundy at the bridge of Montereau, 
the attitude of the two parties was completely changed. 
Philip the Good allied himself at once to the English, 
and thus made of the Armagnacs the patriotic party, 
almost against their will. Slowly but steadily this fact 
entered into the minds of the common people. La Hire 
and his ruffians were very cruel, more cruel than the 
Englishmen of the regent Bedford, but only through La 
Hire and the like of him was there any hope of final 
escape. Peace could come only by the overthrow of the 
English ; when they were gone, La Hire and his compan- 
ions could be dealt with as they deserved. 

Of course the peasants felt this almost unconsciously; 
they did not reason much about it. The old partisan 
hatred did not disappear at once, and patriotic enthusi- 
asm was kindled slowly. The Burgundians of Paris at 
first welcomed the English, and the people of Normandy 
were reasonably quiet under English rule, so long as the 
Armagnac partisans were kept out of the province. Few 
noblemen could be trusted by either side ; but the com- 
mon people came slowly to recognize that the question 
was no longer between Burgundian and Armagnac, but 
between foreigners and Frenchmen. Before that awful 
struggle French patriotism hardly existed. At the end 
of the Hundred Years' War it was well grown. ^ 

^ See Luce, Chron. de Mt. St. Michel, i. 300, for the story of a man 
who had been twice made prisoner by the Armagnacs, yet loved them 



26 JOAN OF ARC. 

What was true of tlie rest of the kingdom was true 
of a village like Domremy. Much learning has been 
wasted in proving that the part of Domremy in which 
Joan was born belonged to the royal domain. Ingenuity 
has been exhausted in guessing why its people were faith- 
ful to Charles. In fact, they shared the feelings of other 
Frenchmen, of nearly all men not nobles or soldiers who 
spoke the French language, whatever might be their pre- 
cise feudal relation to the crown. Personal and local 
feuds still lasted, of course. There was a peasant even 
in Domremy who passed for a Burgundian. The boys 
of Joan's age at Domremy used to fight in the meadows 
with the boys of Maxey, the former as Armagnacs, the 
latter as Burgundians ; but these childish quarrels, which 
lasted into the present century, were probably the remains 
of an old local feud between the two villages, rather than 
the result of recent political strife.^ 

In these surroundings Joan passed her childhood. 
Her father came from a village whose people may have 
had a traditional affection for the king of France,^ but 
his feelings differed little from those of his neighbors. 
Everywhere the child learned that the English, aided by 
the duke of Burgundy, were the cause of all the horrors 
about her, and that the only hope lay in Charles VII., 
her rightful king. The time came when she saw those 
horrors with her own eyes. 

more than he did the English. See, also, BUI. Ec. Charles, t. liv. 
475. 

^ P. ii. 423, Gerard d'Epinal ; i. 65, 66, J.'s test. ; LucSj France 
pendant la guerre de cent ans, 276. 

2 Luce, xl. 



CHAPTER in. 

THE VOICES. 

Some forty miles west of Domremy, the castle of Don- 
levant was held by Henry of Orly, a soldier of 
fortune, who had gathered to himseK a band of 
freebooters, and with them lived off the countryside. 
He cared little for English, Armagnacs, or Burgundians ; 
in the utter confusion of men and parties, he plundered 
all the poor and weak, while he waged war and made 
alliances with the greater feudal lords, changing sides 
with bewildering rapidity. One day, when Joan was 
about thirteen years old, his men fell upon Domremy so 
suddenly that the people could not escape to the Castle 
of the Island. The robbers quickly gathered all the 
cattle of the village, stripped the houses of everything 
worth carrying off, and rode away with their booty. 
Apparently, they did not kill the peasants, or even burn 
their houses, but the livelihood of the village was gone. 
The herd was so large that the castle of Doulevant would 
not hold the cattle, but, as they were driven some fifty 
miles from Domremy, Henry of Orly feared no pursuit. 

In their distress the peaceful peasants called upon 
Joanna of Joinville, then the representative of the family 
of Bourlemont, to which Domremy belonged. The lady 
sent for help to her kinsman, Anthony, count of Vaude- 
mont, one of the most powerful lords in Lorraine. Vaude- 
mont's men retook the cattle without much difficulty; 
they beat off Orly, when he came riding after them, and 
drove the herd in safety back to Domremy.^ There was 
great joy in the village at its return. 
1 Luce, Ixxxi. 275. 



28 JOAN OF AEG. 

Thus Domremy learned the meaning of war. The 
English were not directly responsible for the raid, as 
Orly seems to have been in the service of neither party, 
while the count of Vaudemont was distinctly on the 
Anglo-Burgundian side. Nevertheless, as has been said, 
the common people were coming to feel that peace and 
quiet were possible only after the English should be 
driven from France. 

Soon after this raid,^ at about noon in the summer- 
time, Joan was in her father's garden, a small plot of 
ground between the house and the church. At her left 
hand, toward the church, she saw a great light and had 
a vision of the archangel Michael, surrounded by other 
angels. The little girl, only about thirteen years old, 
was much frightened, and did not know what was come 
to her; soon the vision faded away. In the days and 
weeks which followed, however, it returned again and 
again. Her fear passed away as she became familiar 
with the sight, and fear was succeeded by great comfort 
and peace, when at length she believed that the archangel 
had verily appeared to her. He bade her be a good girl, 
and promised that God would help her; he said that 
Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret would soon visit 
her, commissioned by God to advise and to guide her, 
and he ordered her to obey their words. His prophecy 
came to pass, and she beheld the two saints, their gra- 
cious faces richly crowned. They told her their names, 
and, vaguely at first, they bade her go to the help of the 
king of France. At once she took their voices as the 

^ This is M. Luce's conjecture, and it is a very happy one, though 
without positive proof. At P. i. 72, Joan says it was seven years 
before her trial, i. e., 1424 ; at L 52, when she was thirteen years old, 
t. «., 1425. Neither statement was intended to be an exact one. 
Moreover, the date of the raid is not certainly known within a year 
or two. See Ayroles, Vraie Jeanne d'Arc, ii. 278 et seq. M. Luce 
is certainly fanciful at times, but P. Ayroles is inclined to adopt an 
opinion because it is opposed to that of M. Luce. 



THE VOICES. 29 

guide of her life, asking no reward of them, except the 
salvation of her soul. ^ 

These were the subjective impressions on the mind of 
Joan. Their objective cause and explanation have been 
widely sought, but if we try to connect the past life and 
the surroundings of the little girl with the saints whom 
she saw, we shall find the evidence of such connection 
very scanty. Six years earlier, Charles VII., when 
dauphin, had in some sort taken St. Michael for his 
patron, and a picture of the archangel for his armorial 
device.^ The great fortified Norman monastery of Mount 
St. Michael at the Peril of the Sea had been blockaded 
by the English, and at about the time of Joan's vision its 
defenders had won a victory which raised the blockade.^ 
It is possible, of course, that a peasant's child, thirteen 
years old, should attach importance to the heraldic device 
of her king, and should be deeply moved by a victory of 
some local note won more than three hundred miles from 
her home, but it is not likely. Catherine was the name 
of Joan's sister, and there was a statue of St. Margaret 
in the church of Domremy.* In this way Joan may 
have come to regard these saints with especial reverence, 
but the cause of her veneration, if it existed before her 
vision, is more probably buried with the lost history of 
her early childhood and of the local traditions and wor- 
ship of the village. 

The occasion and circumstances of her vision were 
known at the time only to the little girl. The day of the 
vision was probably a fast day, though this is not certain. 
Such days are far too common in the Catholic Church, 

1 P. i. 51, 62, 57, 70, 73, 128, 169-171, 480, J.'s test. 

2 Luce, Ixxxix., xcvi. 87. For an account of statuettes of St. Michael, 
etc., see Almanack de J., 1890, 17, note. 

8 Luce, ciii. ; lb., Chron. de ML St. MicM, i. 28, 202. 
* Bourgaut, Guide du pelerin a Domremy, 60. St. Catherine was 
patron of the church of Masey. Luce, cxxviii. 



30 JOAN OF ARC. 

however, to produce any disturbing effect.^ The life 
of a child, living with other children in an obscure 
hamlet, leaves no record from which its history can be 
written. Just after Joan became famous, a story went 
that one day she had been running races in the meadows 
of the Meuse, always beating her companions, and seem- 
ing to fly rather than to tread the ground. As she 
stopped, breathless, a boy told her that her mother needed 
her help; but when Joan reached the cottage, Isabel 
answered that she had not been sent for. The girl turned 
about to rejoin her companions, then suddenly saw a light 
and heard a voice. This account of the first vision, how- 
ever, is contained in a letter which is full of pure legend, 
and cannot be trusted. ^ 

Joan herself seldom spoke of her visions ; ^ like many 
of the deepest religious experiences, they were 
■ much too sacred for common conversation. For 
several years she said not a word to any one. After- 
wards, when it became absolutely necessary to say some- 
thing in order to establish her divine mission, she spoke 
of what she had seen, but always with reluctance and 
reserve; with still greater reluctance she spoke to her 
judges at her trial, and yet from her own story all our 
real knowledge of her visions has come. That she both 
saw and heard the saints we know, but precisely what 
she saw, or how she heard them speak, she never told 
any one.* Two things only are certain: first, that she 
was sincere, both then and afterwards, and, second, that 
no trick was played upon her by others. It appears, 

^ In her testimony Joan is reported as saying only that she had 
not fasted on the preceding day. (P. i. 62, corrected by the 
insertion of "non." See Taxil, Le Martyre de J., 101.) In the 
digest of her testimony prepared by the court, i. 216, she is made 
to say also that " she was then fasting." 

2 P. V. 114, Boulainvilliers. 

8 See P. i. 128, J.'s test. 

* See P. iii. 12, Bastard ; i. 85, 86, J.'s test. 



THE VOICES. 31 

moreover, by very strong evidence, that in all other re- 
spects she was quite healthy, both in body and in mind.'^ 
Further than this, history cannot go, and the choice be- 
tween insanity and inspiration must be made by another 



science 



2 



Joan's heavenly visitors caused no great change in her 
outward life. She busied herself in spinning, in sewing, 
and in helping her mother about the house ; she worked 
in the fields and gathered the harvest with other girls of 
her age, and now and then she took her turn in watching 
the cattle at pasture.^ She was a good girl, nursed the 
sick, and occasionally gave her bed to some wayfarer who 
passed the night in her father's house.* She went to 
confession and to mass, visited the oratories and chapels 
on the hillsides, liked to hear the church-bells ring out 
over the valley of the Meuse, and chid the sexton when 
he was lazy or forgetful. Sometimes the other children 
of the village, as children will, laughed at her for her 
piety. ^ She was reserved, and having a great secret 
which she told to no one, she lived by herself more than 
most girls of her age ; but she had her friends, whom she 
loved and who loved her. She was strong and brave, 
very earnest, but having much of the shrewd humor of 
the peasants of Lorraine. After she had become famous, 
the villagers strained their memories, and roused their 
imaginations, to tell marvelous stories of her girlhood, 
but, as she grew up among them, they thought of her 

^ Aulon says that he heard from several women that Joan did 
not menstruate, but his recollection of hearsay twenty-five years or 
more after the event is almost worthless. Many pure legends about 
Joan are much better vouched than this. He himself says that she 
was fair and well formed. P. iii. 219. See, also, iii. 100, Alengon. 

2 See Appendix B. 

8 p. i. 51, 66, J.'s test. ; ii. 390, Morel ; 396, Estellin ; 424, 
Musnier. 

* P. ii. 424, Musnier ; 427, G^rardin. 

6 P. ii. 402, Syon ; 413, Drapier ; 420, Waterin ; 433, Colin. 



32 JOAN OP ARC. 

only as a good girl, like other good girls whom they 
knew. 

For three years the saints visited Joan,* and their 
"voices," as she called them, told her more and more 
distinctly that she must save France, though as yet they 
gave her no definite commands. Meantime, the fortune 
o£ Charles VII. and of the Armagnacs, especially in the 
neighborhood of Domremy, went from bad to worse. 
In 1427, and in 1428, the Anglo-Burgundians carried 
on vigorous campaigns, and before midsummer, 1428, 
in the whole east of France, only the town 
of Vaucouleurs held for Charles VII. ^ Several 
Burgundian leaders advanced to besiege it; its captain, 
Robert of Baudricourt, prepared to defend himself, 
but he could not protect the open country. Domremy 
was only thirteen miles south of Vaucouleurs, and the 
peasants left their homes while there was time to es- 
cape. Moving in a body, they drove their cattle seven 
miles south to Neufchateau, a walled town belonging to 
the duke of Lorraine, who was an ally of the English. 
In spite of the duke's politics, the men of Neufchateau 
very likely sympathized with Baudricourt; at any rate, 
they received with hospitality the outcasts of Domremy. 
The family of Arc was lodged for a fortnight in an inn 
kept by an honest woman named La Eousse, whom Joan 
helped with the hoiisework, at other times watching the 
cattle as they fed in their new pastures.^ 

1 See P. iv. 326, Doyen de St. Thibaud. 

^ The English gathered a force in 1427, and the war went on dur- 
ing that year and the first part of the next ; Luce, cliii. et seq. A 
truce had been made between France and Burgundy, which covered 
Vaucouleurs^ but this did not protect the place from the English, 
nor, apparently, from all the followers of Burgundy. Luce, clix. 
215, and 211, note. 

8 Luce, clxix. 220 ; P. i. 51, J.'s test. ; ii. 392, Morel ; 411, La- 
cloppe ; 428, Gerardin ; 431, Joyart. It is not certain that the 
attack on Vaucouleurs was the cause of the flight to Neufchateau, 



THE VOICES. 33 

The siege of Vaucouleurs did not last long; Baudri- 
court was wary and shifty as well as resolute and brave. 
In some way or other he made peace with the Burgun- 
dian captain, and this without an immediate surrender. 
Perhaps there was a bribe given; some of the Burgun- 
dian partisans were not above selling the interest of their 
English employers for private gain. Perhaps the duke 
of Burgundy recalled his followers; more than once 
Philip the Good was seized with a fit of jealousy lest the 
English should grow too strong, and Baudricourt may 
have sought his protection. More likely, the captain of 
Vaucouleurs agreed to surrender the town unless relief 
came to him by a day fixed. In the fifteenth century 
such agreements were common, and they provided that, 
until the day arrived, the garrison should be left in pos- 
session and the besiegers withdrawn. At any rate, the 
Anglo-Burgundian force withdrew, and Baudricourt kept 
Vaucouleurs for Charles VII. ^ 

As soon as the danger was over, the peasants returned 
to Domremy, and found that the village had been burned. 
Their cattle were safe, and some of their household goods 
had been carried to Neuf chateau; their stone cottages 
were easily roofed again, but signs of the fire remained 

but it is altogether probable. See Luce, clxx. ; P. ii. 392, note 2. 
Ayroles, Vraie Jeanne d'Arc, ii. 288, supposes that the flight to Neuf- 
chateau took place in 1425, and that there was no second raid in 
1428. Doubtless he succeeds in showing that some of M. Luce's 
statements regarding the campaign of 1428 are exaggerated, but as 
to the main fact I think M. Luce is right. Ayroles relies too much 
upon the legends contained in the letter of Boulainvilliers, and upon 
the supposed visit of Joan to Vaucouleurs in 1428. 

1 Luce, clxix. 232. See, also. Luce, 323, 328, and the conduct of 
Philip regarding the siege of Orleans, p. 89, iufra. It is probable that 
the town was not regularly invested. On July 16-17 Antoine de 
Vergy passed the attacking army in review at St. Urbain, while only 
two or three days later he notified advancing reinforcements that 
they were not needed. See Luce, 220 ; Ayroles, Vraie Jeanne d'Arc, 
u. 78, 447. 



34 JOAN OF ARC. 

everywhere, and their church was so far destroyed that 
mass could be said in it no longer. ^ Its black ruins stood 
next the garden of Joan's father, on that side of the 
garden where the vision had first appeared to her. She 
now understood more fully the meaning of her voices 
when they told her of the miseries of France. ^ 

At this time Joan was in her seventeenth year, a well- 
grown girl, strong and healthy, dark -haired, with a pleas- 
ant face and a sweet voice.^ She might well think of 
marrying, and a young man sought her hand. Neither 
then nor at any time was Joan an ascetic ; she kept the 
fasts of the church, as part of her Christian duty, but 
she practiced no extraordinary self -mortification. God 
had called her to do a work, impossible of accomplishment 
if she married, and, therefore, from the first she vowed 
to remain a virgin so long as He should please. When 
her errand was done, her vow would expire, and she, if 
she were living, would be left a peasant girl of Domremy, 
like her friends about her. 

She refused her suitor without hesitation. He was 
persistent, and seems to have had the support of her 
parents ; pretending a betrothal, he cited her before the 
ecclesiastical court of Toul. To Toul she went, seventeen 
miles away, her voices telling her that she should prevail. 
Before the judge she swore to tell the truth, and she told 
it so plainly that her suitor's case was dismissed.* 

After the burning of Domremy and the lawsuit at 
Toul, the commands given Joan by her voices became 
more definite. In the autumn of 1428 the eyes of all 
Frenchmen were turned to Orleans, against which the 

1 See p. ii. 396, Estellln. 

2 See P. i. 66, 178, J.'s test. ; iii. 6, Bastard ; 205, Seguln. 

8 See P. iii. 100, 219 ; iv. 205, 306, 523 ; v. 107, 108, 120, 133 ; 
Relation ined. sur J., 19 ; Vallet de Viriville, Recherches iconO' 
graphiques. 

< P. i. 127, 131, J.'s test. 



THE VOICES. 35 

English had just encamped. If Orleans fell, France was 
lost. Already Joan had been told that she was to save 
France; now the voices told her that she must save 
Orleans. This was not all. Charles VII., though her 
ruler by divine right, was to her only the Dauphin, the 
heir to the throne, not her consecrated king. Greatly as 
she revered him, she would not use the name given him 
by law and by custom; until his coronation she always 
called him the Dauphin.^ This coronation and consecra- 
tion could be had only at Rheims, and Rheims was in 
English hands, many miles from the nearest possession 
of the Armagnacs. As soon as the siege of Orleans was 
raised, therefore, she must lead the Dauphin to Rheims 
and see him made a king. What she should do after she 
had accomplished this, her voices did not direct precisely, 
but they spoke to her somewhat vaguely of driving the 
English from France. 

These were the commands laid upon this girl by her 
heavenly visitors. Joan herself nowise coveted the honor 
of saving France; unless it were done at God's bidding, 
she would rather be torn in pieces by wild horses than 
leave Domremy. More precise and more pressing, how- 
ever, became the divine conunand : she must go to Robert 
of Baudricourt, and ask him for an escort to the Dauphin ; 
in vain she answered that she was a poor girl who could 
neither ride nor lead an army. Two or three times a 
week the voices bade her go to Vaueouleurs.^ 

She trusted her secret to no one, not even to the 
priest, — silent not only from natural reserve, but also 
because she feared hindrance in her work. To a grirl 
living in a small village, however, absolute concealment 
of her feelings was almost impossible. Once or twice 
when the Armagnacs in the village became discouraged, 
or when some stray Burgundian sympathizer began to 

1 P. ii. 456, Poulengy ; iii. 20, Garivel ; iv. 206, Chron. Puc. 

2 P. i. 52, J.'s test. 



36 JOAN OF ARC. 

boast, Joan was tempted to hint darkly that help would 
come to France. 1 By reason, perhaps, of some such hint, 
or of her stern refusal to marry, her father became sus- 
picious, and dreamed of her departure. With natural 
feeling, the rude peasant told his household that he would 
rather drown his daughter than let her go off with the 
soldiers.^ As winter came on, the siege of Orleans was 
pushed more vigorously, and more urgent became the 
commands of Joan's voices; for three years they had 
constantly guided her, and she could not disobey them. 

^ P. ii. 440, Lebuin. I am inclined to think that Joan's public 
career made these hints seem more definite when remembered than 
when they were uttered. 

2 P. i. 131, J.'s test. See iv. 205, Chron, Puc. 



CHAPTER IV. 

VAUCOULEUES. 

In the hamlet of Little Burey, or Burey en Vaux,* on 
the road between Domremy and Vaucouleurs, lived Du- 
rand Laxart, a laborer, the husband of Joan le Vauseul, 
who was a cousin of Joan of Arc.^ Joan could not go 
directly from Domremy to Robert of Baudricourt, for if 
her father should learn her plan, he would certainly pre- 
vent her departure. Burey, ten or eleven miles from 
Domremy, was only about three miles from Vaucouleurs, 
and if Laxart could be persuaded to help her, it would 
be easy to reach Vaucouleurs from his house. In the last 
days of 1428, or at the beginning of 1429, his January, 
wife was to be confined, and Joan offered her- ^*"^" 
self as nurse. ^ Laxart came to Domremy accordingly, 
and fetched away his young cousin.* A girl, leaving her 
home for a few days' nursing, does not make much stir 
even in a small village, and the stories of the neighbors 
who, twenty -five years afterwards, described Joan's depar- 
ture and her farewells can hardly be trusted.^ To Joan 

* P. ii. 443. P. Ay roles, Vraie Jeanne d'Arc, ii. 319 et seq., 
argues that Burey le Petit is not Burey en Vaux, but Burey la Cote, 
now a smaller village about five miles from Domremy, and about 
nine miles from Vaucouleurs. On the whole, however, it is probable 
that Laxart lived in Burey en Vaux. If Joan had stayed within five 
miles of her father's house, after announcing her intention of visiting 
Charles VII., it is hard to see why he did not interfere. 

2 See Labourasse, Vouthon-haut et ses seigneurs, 168 ; Boucher de 
Molandon, Famille de J. 43. 
8 P. ii. 428, Gdrardin. 

* P. ii. 444, Laxart ; see i. 53, J.'s test. 
« See P. ii. 416, Guillemette. 



38 JOAN OF ARC. 

herself, however, her departure must have had the intens- 
est interest. She was not unmindful of her duty to her 
father and mother, and in all other matters she had always 
obeyed them ; but since God had commanded her to go to 
the Dauphin, go she must. Had she a hundred fathers 
and a hundred mothers, as she told her judges, God's 
orders must be obeyed.^ Afterwards she asked and re= 
ceived her parents' pardon for her disobedience. 

Soon after her arrival at Burey, apparently, the child 
was born. In a week or thereabouts, she told Laxart 
that she must go to the Dauphin and cause him to be 
crowned; for which purpose she must visit Vaucouleurs 
at once, and get an escort from Baudricourt.^ Laxart's 
astonishment may be imagined when he heard this pro- 
posal from a young girl whom he had probably known 
from a child; but Joan insisted. Her voices not only 
had told her to go to the Dauphin, but had assured her 
that she should reach him, and her faith was as strong as 
her obedience was ready. She said nothing to Laxart 
about her visions, though she told him that she was ful- 
filling the will of God; but she recalled to him a pro- 
phecy, well known the country round, that France should 
be ruined by a woman, and restored by a maid from the 
borders of Lorraine.^ The woman, as most people were 
ready to agree, was Isabeau of Bavaria, the wretched 
mother of Charles VII. Laxart, a commonplace peas- 
ant, could not resist the enthusiasm and the strong will 
of his cousin; he soon yielded, and they left Burey to- 
gether on their errand.* 

1 P. i. 129, J.'s test. 

2 P. i. 53 ; ii. 444. 
8 lb. 

* According to Joan, P. i. 53, she stayed in Burey about a week ; 
according to Laxart, ii. 443, about six weeks. The second reckoning 
doubtless includes Joan's whole stay, the first only the time before 
her first visit to Vaucouleurs. Even so, Laxart's recollections, more 
than twenty years after the event, probably made the time rather 
too long. 



VAUCOULEUKS. 39 

At Vaucouleurs (the valley of color), the valley of the 
Meuse is a little narrower than at Domremy, and the 
town, beginning on the meadows, extended part way up 
the steep slopes of the low hills. Being a walled town, 
it was closely built with narrow streets, its castle in its 
highest quarter, though even the castle was so commanded 
by the top of the hill up whose side it was built that its 
defense must have been difficult. In the town lived 
about three thousand people; it was held by Baudricourt 
with a small body of soldiers, wild and brutal, like the 
men whose deeds have been described. 

Of these men Robert of Baudricourt was the fit cap- 
tain. He seems to have been faithful to Charles VII., 
though it is impossible to know how far his course was 
determined by mere self-interest. He was brave, of 
course, — excepting Charles himself, no man was ever 
suspected of cowardice in those days; he was shrewd and 
shifty, or he would have lost Vaucouleurs long before. 
Greedy and unscrupulous, he lived off the plunder which 
he gathered from the peasants of the country and from 
the merchants who traveled through it. He was by one 
degree more respectable than a roving highwayman, for 
he was married to a rich and noble widow, and was fixed 
in Vaucouleurs, the garrison of which he had commanded 
for twelve years or more.^ 

One day, early in January, Joan and her cousin walked 
through the streets of the town and went up to see the 
captain. Laxart was a common country laborer; Joan a 
strong, well-made girl, dark-haired, rather pretty, dressed 
in coarse red stuff, like peasant girls of her condition. ^ 

1 Luce, 76. For Baudricourt, see Luce, cl., clxii. 79, 161, 211, 
225, 306, 347, 359. As late as 1450 his men were plundering the 
merchants of Metz. Huguenin, Chron. Messines, 270, 283. See, 
also, Servais, Annales du Barrois, ii. 131, n. ; Lecoy, Hist, du roi Rene, 
i. 69, 77. He died about 1454. P. i. 53, n. 

2 P. ii. 436, Metz ; 457, Poulengy. See Vallet de Viriville, Re- 
cTierches iconog., 3, n. In the testimony of Bertrand of Poulengy, 



40 JOAN OF AEC. 

Once in Baudricourt's presence, she told liim earnestly 
that she must go to help Charles VII. ^ Laxart, who 
had come to believe in her, also urged her request. 

Baudricourt, as much amused as astonished, naturally 
gave little heed to what she said. Sensual, as well as 
brutal, he looked at her to see if she would satisfy his 
lust or that of his soldiers, then, changing his mind, 
he told Laxart to take her back to her father's house 
and give her a sound whipping. With this sensible 
advice, he sent them away, and they both went back to 
Burey.2 

Nothing more discouraging, nothing more humiliating 
could have happened, yet Joan's faith in her voices was 
not shaken. They had told her before, and they told her 
still, that she must raise the siege of Orleans and crown 
the Dauphin; she was sure that they spoke the truth. 
A few days later she went again to Vaucouleurs, deter- 
mined to stay there until she should find an escort to 

given in 1456, is the following statement, P. ii. 456 : " Joan the 
Maid came to Vaucouleurs about Ascension, as it seems to him 
(circa Ascensionem Domini, ut sibi videtur), and then he saw her 
speak to Robert of Baudricourt," etc. If Poulengy's memory can be 
relied upon, and if he was correctly reported, Joan's first visit to 
Vaucouleurs was in the spring or early summer of 1428. This visit, 
however, rests upon the single word " Ascensionem," and can hardly 
be reconciled with well-established facts. Laxart, Metz, and Joan 
herself make no mention of a visit in 1428, and the tenor of their 
testimony makes it highly improbable that seven or eight months 
elapsed between Joan's first visit to Vaucouleurs and her accep- 
tance by Baudricourt. INIoreover, if she had made the attempt in 
1428, she must have gone back to Domremy afterwards, of which 
there is no evidence, and her father would not have allowed her 
to go again to Laxart. Poulengy makes Joan say that " her Lord 
would give (the Dauphin) help before the middle of Lent," — 
an unlikely remark to make at Ascension, but likely enough at 
Epiphany. For " Ascensionem " I should read " Circum.cisionem," 
January 1 ; or perhaps Poulengy, who testified in French, spoke of 
the Nativity or the Baptism of our Lord, December 25 or January IS 
1 P. i. 53, J.'s test. ; ii. 444, Laxart. « P. iv. 118, 205. 



VAUCOULEURS. 41 

Charles, for without an escort she knew that the journey 
could not be made. This time, also, Laxart went with 
her, and found her lodgings with Catherine le Royer, 
the young wife of a respectable citizen. There Joan 
stayed a week or more, telling every one she met that God 
willed her to go to the noble Dauphin, saying nothing of 
her visions, but repeating the old proverb which she had 
quoted to Laxart. Most of the time she sat spinning in 
the house with her hostess, with whom she also went to 
church, and there confessed to Fournier, curate of Vau- 
couleurs. She seemed a good, simple, sweet, and gentle 
girl, Catherine said.^ 

Near the castle was a royal chapel, where, as one of 
the little choir boys long afterwards remembered, Joan 
used often to come in the morning to hear mass. The 
hill on which the chapel stood was so steep that, on its 
eastern side, the crypt below the chapel was open to the 
light; and there also the boy saw Joan, kneeling before 
a shrine of the Virgin, sometimes with her head bowed 
down, and again with her face raised to heaven.^ 

Vaucouleurs was a small town, and Joan's story was 
soon known both to the citizens and the soldiers. At 
her first coming Baudricourt had given her little thought. 
He had supposed her to be only a foolish girl ; but now 
he began to wonder if she were not possessed by a spirit 
of some sort, and he wished to find out if this spirit were 
good or bad. While Joan and Catherine were at home 
one day, he walked into the house, accompanied by the 
curate, John Fournier. The priest was duly robed, and 
in the appointed form he proceeded to exorcise the girl's 
familiar spirit, calling upon it to depart, if it were evil ; 
to draw near, if it were good. Joan went up to him 
at once and reproached him, telling him that he had 

^ P. ii. 445, 448, Catherine and Henry le Royer. Families of 
Royer still live in Vaucouleurs. Chabannes, Vierge de Lorraine, 30- 
» P. ii. 460, Jean le Fumeux. 



42 JOAN OF ARC. 

heard her in confession, and knew what sort of a girl she 
was. The two men then went away, Baudricourt unset- 
tled in his mind, but still unwilling to authorize so fool- 
ish an expedition as that which Joan proposed.^ 

Not long afterwards John of Metz, a hard-swearing 
and lawless soldier,^ stopped at Le Royer's house out of 
curiosity. He had heard of Joan, and thought he would 
draw her out by mocking her. "My dear," he said, 
"what are you doing here? Must the king be driven 
from his kingdom and must we all turn English?" "I 
have come to a royal city," Joan answered, "to tell Rob- 
ert of Baudricourt to send me to the Dauphin, but he 
cares not for me or for my words. Nevertheless, before 
mid-Lent, I must be with the Dauphin, though I have to 
wear my legs down to my ]inees. No one in the world, 
neither kings, nor dukes, nor king of Scotland's daugh- 
ter,^ nor any one else can recover the kingdom of France 
without help from me, though I would rather spin by my 
mother's side, since this is not my calling. But I must 
go and do this work, for my Lord wishes me to do it." 
The answer was not what John of Metz had expected. 
" Who is your Lord ? " he asked in astonishment. " God," 
said Joan. Coarse, reckless soldier that he was, he 
grasped her hand and swore on his honor that, with God 
as their leader, he would take her to the king. He asked 
her when she wished to start. "Rather now than to-mor- 
row, rather to-morrow than afterwards," she said.* 

* P. ii. 446, Catherine le Royer. 

2 For John of Metz, see Luce, 160, 171. He was born in 1398, 
and ennobled in 1441. P. v. 363. 

8 On July 19, 1428, an agreement had been made between Charles 
VII. and James I. of Scotland for the marriage of the Dauphin, 
afterwards Louis XL, to Margaret, James's daughter. At the same 
time Jaraes agreed to send an army to the help of Charles. See 
Beaucourt, ii. 397. The marriage took place June 25, 1436, and 
Margaret died childless August 16, 1445. 

* P. ii. 436, Metz. According to Metz, J. called Charles YIL 



VAUCOULEURS. 43 

It was impossible to start at once. Baudricourt had 
not given his consent, and the ardor of John of Metz may 
have cooled a little when he came to think over what he 
had promised. One after another, however, the people 
of Vaiicouleurs began to believe in Joan. Bertrand of 
Poulengy, another rude soldier, offered to join John of 
Metz as her escort,^ and James Alain, a friend of Lax- 
art, living at Vaucouleurs, was ready to help her as best 
he could. Yet Joan was impatient of the delay, knowing 
that Orleans could not hold out forever. The time hung 
heavy on her hands, said her hostess, as if she had been 
a woman with child. 

When they found that Baudricourt was not willing to 
help her, Joan and her friends began to look elsewhere, 
and bethought themselves of the neighboring duke of 
Lorraine. Joan was somewhat cast down, not through 
want of faith in her divine mission, but because of the 
obstacles which unbelieving men like Baudricourt were 
putting in her way. She was the more ready, therefore, 
to follow the advice of Laxart and the others, and she set 
out from Vaucouleurs for Nancy, the capital of Lorraine, 
to ask the duke's help.^ 

" king," but the word was probably " dauphin." Metz's error in 
recollection would be very natural. 

1 For Poulengy, see Luce, 143. He was born in 1392. 

2 This visit to Nancy is not altogether easy to explain. Luce, 
cxcviii., supposes its cause to have been the curiosity of the duke 
and of Rend of Bar. M. Luce's reasons do not seem cogent, and, 
moreover, it is quite clear that Joan would not have gone to Nancy 
on any such errand. She certainly did not go to Lorraine alto- 
gether or principally to make the pilgrimage to the shrine of St. 
Nicholas ; the pilgrimage was an incident of the journey. It seems 
to me more likely that the visit was planned by Laxart, Alain, and 
the rest, in order to get help for Joan's journey into France. The 
duke's safe-conduct was got somehow or other, perhaps by playing 
upon his curiosity without Joan's knowledge. Joan seems to have 
believed that he had bidden her to come to him, but she would hardly 
have gone unless she had expected help in her mission. See P. L 
53, J.'s test. ; ii. 391, 406, 437, 444, 447, 457. 



44 JOAN OF ARC. 

Charles II. of Lorraine was a prince of the Holy 
Roman Empire, and was a vassal of the king of France 
for but a small part of his great possessions. For this 
small part he had sworn allegiance to King Henry, and 
so was professedly on the Anglo-Burgundian side. His 
sympathies, however, were doubtful, and his son-in-law 
and heir presumptive, Rene of Anjou, was not only a 
prince of the French blood-royal, but also the brother-in- 
law of Charles VII. This Rene, duke of Bar, was Joan's 
feudal overlord, and was well known to favor the Arma- 
gnac party, though at times forced to come to terms with 
the English. It is probable that Laxart and John of 
Metz, in taking Joan to Nancy, reckoned on his influ- 
ence, for he had just joined his father-in-law in that 
city.^ Duke Charles was an elderly man, a-lready sick of 
a mortal disease, but living in such open immorality as 
to scandalize his people. ^ He seems to have hoped that 
Joan would work some miracle for his cure, and so he 
sent her a safe-conduct which not only bound him to 
allow her to return to Vaueouleurs, but also gave her 
some protection against the bands of soldiers infesting 
the country. 

Now that she was to live among men, Joan perceived 
that she must change the clothes she wore. If she was to 
be safe among coarse and sensual soldiers, she must her- 
seK dress like a soldier. It needed no voice from heaven 
to tell her this. Indeed, she always considered her reve- 
lations as given to direct her in extraordinary affairs, not 
as supplying the need in ordinary matters of good com- 
mon sense. They had told her to go to Charles VII., for 
instance, to raise the siege of Orleans, and afterwards to 
crown the Dauphin at Rheims. These things she would 
never have thought of undertaking except by divine com- 
mand. Her voices had told her, also, to go to Baudri- 

1 See Luce, cxcviii. Ren^ was born in 1408, and married in 1420. 

2 For his mistress, Alison du May, see Badel, /. a Nancy, 35. 



VAUCOULEURS. 45 

court and ask his help ; hut this only as a means to an 
end, so that when he would not send her to the Dauphin, 
she tried to get an escort elsewhere. Never did she sup- 
pose that God would work for her any unnecessary miracle, 
or that his commands would excuse her from exercising 
her best judgment in carrying them out.^ 

Her cousin Laxart and John of Metz lent her some of 
their clothes, accordingly ; ^ and toward the end of Janu- 

1 The precise reasons which made Joan put on men's clothes have 
been much discussed. Probably she herself could not have explained 
the matter quite definitely. On the whole, however, it seems prob- 
able that she did not wear them in direct obedience to what she sup- 
posed to be a specific divine command, but rather treated them as 
means necessary to carry out the divine commands. Probably, too, 
one feeling shaded imperceptibly into the other. Though she was 
usually quite willing to assert for her acts a specific divine command, 
she was evidently unwilling to do this for her dress, and, when asked 
about it, generally gave evasive answers. See P. i. 64, 96, 179, 
193, 221 et seq., 455. Once or twice, no doubt, she was understood 
by her examiners to say that God had bidden her wear men's clothes, 
but probably she meant only to assert that she did not transgress 
God's commands by wearing them. For example, on February 27 
she was asked if He had bidden her wear men's clothes, and she 
replied "that it is of little consequence about her clothes, and a 
small matter ; she has not put on men's clothes by the counsel of 
any man in the world ; she has not changed her clothes or done any- 
thing else except at the bidding of God and his angels." P. i. 74. 
On the other hand, she declared herself ready to wear woman's dress 
if the occasion required, e. g., if she were allowed to escape in it, 
i. 68, 191 ; at her death, i. 176 ; if she were transferred to a suitable 
prison, i. 456 ; and, perhaps, to receive the Eucharist, i. 164. At her 
last examination, May 28, when asked why she had again put on 
men's clothes, she did not plead the divine command, but only de- 
cency and a breach of the conditions upon v/hich she had made the 
first change. P. i. 455. Two things are especially noticeable in her 
testimony regarding this as well as many other matters : first, her 
strong desire to shield every one else from blame, and, second, a 
modesty and reticence in her speech which were unusual in her time. 
It is in evidence that she enjoyed bright clothes, but there is no rea- 
son to suppose that she preferred man's dress for its own sake. 

2 P. ii. 437, Metz ; 444, Laxart. 



46 JOAN OF ARC. 

ary, they started for Nancy, passing through Toul on 
their way, where Joan had gone before to get rid of her 
troublesome suitor. There John of Metz left them, while 
Joan with Laxart and Alain traveled fifteen miles further 
to Nancy. ^ 

When Joan saw the duke of Lorraine, she told him, 
as she had told Baudricourt, that she wished to go to the 
Dauphin. The duke, however, was much more interested 
in his own health than in her mission, and asked her to 
cure him of his disease. She answered that she knew 
nothing of such matters, but that he was leading an evil 
life and never would be cured until he amended it. She 
beo:s:ed him to send with her to France his son-in-law 
Rene and a body of soldiers, and she promised to pray 
for his recovery. Very soon she found out that he had 
no intention of helping her, and therefore she said little 
to him about her mission. The duke gave her a small 
sum of money and sent her away.^ Apparently she did 
not see Ren^ ; the poor young man, whose duchy of Bar 
had been unmercifully harried by both sides, despairing 
of successful resistance to the English, at that very time 
was preparing to swear allegiance to Henry.^ 

In going to Nancy or in coming back, Joan visited the 
February, f ^mous shrine of St. Nicholas, to pray there ; ^ but 
1429. her journey was little delayed, and she reached 
Vaucouleurs again early in February.^ Though she had 

1 P. ii. 447, Catherine le Royer. 

2 P, i. 54, J.'s test. ; ii. 444, Laxart ; iii. 87, Marg. la Touroulde. 
I doubt if the duke gave her a horse. Had he done so, there would 
have been no need of buying another. The story rests altogether 
upon the testimony of Morel, ii. 391, and of Martigny, 406. Both 
spoke only from hearsay. 

3 Luce, 239. 

4 P. ii. 447, Catherine le Royer ; 457, Poulengy. See, also, 
Badel, J. a Nancy, 24. 

s John of Metz says that the date was about the first Sunday in 
Lent, February 13. But I adopt the chronology of the Clerk of La 



VAUCOULEURS. 47 

failed to persuade the duke, yet the belief in her mission 
was now grown strong in Vaucouleurs, and John of Metz 
with Bertrand of Poulengy were ready to conduct her to 
Charles. 1 

Baudricourt's consent was necessary, however; and to 
him Joan again appealed, urging him to send her for- 
ward lest Orleans should fall before she could reach it. 
As all other means of persuasion had failed, she told him 
at this time something of her visions and of her voices; 
just what she said we do not know.^ He was not con- 
vinced, but he decided to try the experiment, and yielded, 
though with doubt and reluctance.^ 

Meantime, the people of Vaucouleurs, joining together, 
had bought for Joan men's clothes suited to her journey 
and to an appearance at court. She put on a close-fitting 
black vest, to which were fastened trunks and long stock- 
ings ; over the vest she wore a short, dark gray cloak ; 
her hat was black. Her dark hair was cut short and 
round, in saucer fashion, as men then wore it. Booted 
and spurred, with a sword at her side, mounted on a 
horse which Laxart and Alain had given her, but for 
M^hich Baudricourt afterwards paid, she rode out of the 

Rochelle and of M. de Boismarmin, which fixes Joan's departure from 
Vaucouleurs at or about February 12. 

1 P. ii. 457, Poulengy. 

2 P. i. 128, J.'s test. 

8 The reluctance or indifference of Baudricourt, even at the last, 
may be inferred from the general drift of the testimony of Laxart, 
Metz, Poulengy, and the rest ; also from his farewell speech to the 
expedition. No doubt the witnesses at the second trial magnified 
their own share in helping Joan ; but, on the other hand, in Joan'? 
lifetime it is probable that Baudricourt, as the chief man of Vau- 
couleurs and the neighborhood, got more than his share of the 
credit of sending her to court. 

There is no reason to suppose that any letter was sent by Baudri- 
court to the king before that which accompanied Joan herself. The 
fact that a royal messenger happened to be in Vaucouleurs at the 
time proves nothing. 



48 JOAN OF ARC. 

Frencli Gate on tlie afternoon of Saturday, February 
February 12, 1429.1 'j^\^q ^^vo soldiers, Metz and Pou- 
12, ii2y. lengy, and their two servants escorted her ; with 
them rode Colet of Vienne, a royal courier, and his 
servant, in all six armed men besides Joan herself. The 
courier seems to have carried a letter from Baudri- 
court to the king, giving some account of Joan, and 
especially mentioning something which Joan had said to 
him, which was afterwards taken as a miraculous an- 
nouncement of the battle of the Herrings, fought near 
Orleans at that very hour.^ Baudricourt, who knew the 
character of her escort, made the men swear that they 
would guide her well and safely; then, as the party rode 
av/ay, the absurdity of the expedition again struck the 
grim captain. "Away with you," he called after them, 
"come what may."^ 

During this time, so far as Is known, Joan's father 
gave no sign. Six weeks or thereabouts had passed since 
she left Domremy, distant from Vaucouleurs only some 
thirteen miles. He must have known well what his 
daughter was doing, and the mere suspicion that she 
wished to do these things had once made him furious. 
No certain explanation of his silence can be given; the 
most probable is to be found In his character and that of 
the rest of his family. Nothing is known of James of 
Arc, of his wife, or of his sons, which distinguishes them 
from other peasants of like condition. Naturally, the 
men of the family would have prevented Joan's depar- 
ture ; but after she had gone, they were either too angry 

1 P. ii. 437, 445, 447, 457 ; Luce, ccx. ; Rel. ined., 19. See p. 62, 
note 1, infra. 

2 This seems to me the most reasonable explanation. The evi- 
dence that Joan really announced the defeat to Baudricourt is quite 
insufficient, but there can be little doubt that he afterwards believed 
she had done so. P. iv. 125, 128, 206. Baudricourt's letter would 
naturally be written just before Joan's departure. 

8 P. i. 65, J.'s test. 



VAUCOULEURS. 49 

or too Indifferent to try to bring her back. When she 
became famous, two of her brothers were quick to join 
her, and the family lived off her reputation, both while 
she was alive and after her death. 

As her mother, Isabel may have been a little nearer to 
Joan than a father or a brother, but, as a woman, she was 
guided entirely by her husband and her sons. Strug- 
gling against a will like Joan's, respectable commonplace 
people would have been powerless, and this they may 
have recognized. 

Joan herself, setting out from Vaucouleurs, did not 
forget her home and her people. A high-spirited, brave 
girl, sure of God's direction, must have been excited by 
the thought of a Journey like that before Joan, and 
doubtless there was a pleasure in the excitement. But 
Joan had not the personal vanity and the sense of impor- 
tance which help sustain many honest and devoted en- 
thusiasts. Often she thought of Domremy, and wished she 
were spinning at her mother's side; then her voices said 
to her, "Child of God, go, go." 



CHAPTER V. 
CHINON. 

At Chinon in Touraine Charles VII. kept his court. 
_ From Vaucouleurs to Chinon was nearly three 

12-23, hundred miles, and the first half of the road lay 
through a country which acknowledged Henry 
as king. Joan and her little escort had nothing to fear, 
indeed, from the country people, for the sympathy of 
these was with Charles rather than with Henry, and, be- 
sides, the frightened peasants were devoutly thankful 
when half a dozen armed men were willing to ride for- 
ward and mind their own business. But through the 
country were constantly marching detachments of Eng- 
lish soldiers, and bands of Burgundian partisans roamed 
hither and thither ; wretched outlaws who obeyed neither 
king infested the woods, and many castles were held by 
lords, themselves little better than robbers, who were in 
the pay of English or Burgundians, or were otherwise 
allied to the Anglo-Burgundian party. Even in the im- 
mediate neighborhood of Vaucouleurs the roads were far 
from safe. 

Late in the afternoon, accordingly, Joan set out, and 
rode on far into the night, until she reached the Bene- 
dictine abbey of St. Urbain, on the river Marne. The 
abbot, a kinsman of Baudricourt, very likely forewarned 
of her journey, received her with her companions, and 
lodged them until morning. ^ 

The next day, they rode forward across the country. 

1 P. i. 54, J.'s test. ; ii. 457, Pouleugy ; Pimodan, La premiere etape 
deJ. 



CHINON. 51 

Metz and Poulengy were hardened soldiers, yet they both 
feared greatly that the journey never would be accom- 
plished, and they were not ashamed to confess their 
doubts and fears to Joan. With perfect confidence she 
assured them that she was but obeying commands laid 
upon her, and that for years God, her Lord, and her 
brothers in Paradise had told her she must fight for the 
salvation of the kingdom. As the days passed, the sol- 
diers came to look on her with reverence and awe. "I 
think she was sent from God, for she never swore," said 
John of Metz, who himself had been fined in court for 
hard and foul swearing. Poulengy told how her words 
burned in him, and said she was as good a girl as if she 
had been a saint. Often they avoided the inns and 
slept in the fields, where Metz and Poulengy, both young 
men, lay down beside her without thought of impurity. 
"Freely she gave alms," said Metz, "and many times 
she gave me money to give for God."^ The sums must 
have been small, for she had but a few francs, a present 
from the duke of Lorraine, perhaps, or from the peo- 
ple of Vaucouleurs; whatever money was her own she 
usually spent in this way. The expense of the journey 
was borne by Metz and Poulengy, who were afterwards 
repaid out of the royal treasury.^ 

As they seldom stopped at an inn for fear of detection, 
so they dared not go to church. This distressed Joan, 
who was accustomed to hear mass every day, and who, 
being on God's errand, wished constantly to ask his 
help. "If we could hear mass, we should do well," she 
said; but when they told her it was too dangerous,^ she 
did not insist. After they had been out four or five 
days, they came to Auxerre, a considerable city, be- 
longing to the duke of Burgundy. Like most cities, 

1 P. ii. 437, Metz ; 458, Poulengy ; and see iii. 15, Bastard ; 216, 
Aulon. 

« P. V. 257 ; ii. 437. ^ P. ii. 438, Metz. 



52 JOAN OF ARC. 

it had a wholesome dread of all bodies of troops, and 
cared little about the politics of travelers so long as these 
behaved themselves quietly. ^ The little party mingled 
with the crowd, and Joan, at least, heard mass in the 
cathedral ; ^ then they stole quietly away and rode west- 
ward to Gien.^ 

On Friday or thereabouts they reached Gien, a town 
on the Loire about forty miles above Orleans, holding for 
Charles; their danger was now almost over, and Joan 
spoke freely of her errand. The news spread fast that 
a maid was come from the borders of Lorraine to raise 
the siege of Orleans and crown the Dauphin. Every- 
where people were excited ; in spite of the blockade, men 
often slipped into Orleans, and messengers from Gien 
soon told the story in the besieged city. Its commander, 
the famous Bastard of Orleans, afterwards count of 
Dunois, at once sent two of his officers to Chinon, 
whither he knew that Joan was bound.* 

The news from Orleans which Joan learned at Gien 
was very discouraging. On the day of her departure 
from Vaucouleurs had been fought the battle of Rouvray, 
or of the Herrings, which Baudricourt believed that she 
had announced to him. It had been a disastrous defeat 
for the garrison, and had brought both citizens and sol- 
diers to despair. Many captains had slipped out of the 
city; with them had gone its bishop; and the Bastard, 
himself wounded, was left there almost alone. ^ No time 
was to be lost, and Joan impatiently rode forward across 
the sandy Sologne and the flat fertile country of Tou- 
raine. 

^ See Plancher, Hist. Bourgogne, iv., Ixxxiv. 

2 P. i. 54, J.'s test. 

2 The story of the attempt made by her escort to frighten her may 
be true, but it is told on no sufficient authority. See P. iii. 199, 
Lemaistre. 

4 P. iii. 3, Bastard ; 21, Ricarville. ^ See chap. vii. 



CHINON. 53 

The anxiety of Poulengy now took a different turn. 
Believe in Joan as he might, he could not help wonder- 
ing what reception they would meet at court. Charles 
and his councilors might think it all a fool's errand, and 
he might be left with his money spent, the laughing-stock 
of his comrades. He told his fears to Joan, of course; 
she calmly assured him that he need not be afraid, for 
the Dauphin would receive them kindly when they reached 
Chinon.^ 

On Monday night or on Tuesday morning they came 
to St. Catherine of Fierbois, a little village about fif- 
teen miles from Chinon.^ There they halted, not daring 
to bring Joan to court until leave should be had of the 
king. A letter was sent forward, probably by Colet of 
Vienne, the royal messenger, which set forth that Joan 
had ridden a hundred and fifty leagues to bring help to 
Charles, and that she bore good news to him. Joan 
could not write herself, but the letter was read over to 
her, and part of it she dictated. A day or more must 
pass before an answer could come back from Chinon, and 
she was able to hear three masses in the village church, 
dedicated to St. Catherine, her daily visitor.^ 

On Wednesday morning a message came from Charles, 
and they rode on to Chinon. The tov/n is built February 
upon a meadow beside the river Vienne ; behind ^^' ^^"^' 
it rises a high perpendicular ledge on which the castle 
stood. At once a fortress and a palace, it had thick walls, 
huge towers, and deep moats, which protected great build- 
ings but just constructed, containing lofty rooms lighted by 

* P. ii. 457, Poulengy ; see i. 56, J.'s test. St. Catherine of Fier- 
bois was a well-known resort of pilgrims, especially of those who had 
been delivered from the English. See Bourassd, Miracles de Madame 
Ste. Katherine. 

2 See Caddy, Footsteps of J., 99 ; De Coiigny, Charles VII. etJ. a 
Chinon, 19. 

8 P. i. 75, J.'s test. 



64 JOAN OF ARC. 

large muUioned windows. Joan reached the town about 
noon, and dined at an inn ; after dinner she rode around 
the western end of the cliff, through a gloomy ravine, 
made darker by the high walls of the castle, up to its 
eastern entrance, where the drawbridge crossed a moat 
hewn in the solid rock. She was led past the modern 
buildings, across another drawbridge, into the strongest 
part of the hold, and there lodged in a great tower called 
of Coudray.^ 

At court in Chinon were many of the royal council- 
ors ; among them La Tremoille, the greedy and treacher- 
ous favorite already mentioned, eager to get estates from 
Charles, which he protected from attack by private 
treaty with the English. He had his followers, such as 
Regnault of Chartres, archbishop of Rheims and chan- 
cellor of France, a selfish and worldly prelate, incapable 
of finding anything unselfish or unworldly in others.^ 
There were courtiers of the less ambitious sort, men who 
cared little whether Henry or Charles was king, so long 
as a court was maintained. There were the captains of 
banditti, who professed to be in Charles's service, Gas- 
cons, and Spaniards, and other adventurers, — brave men, 
who seldom sold themselves to an enemy, but were always 
ready to put the king's servants to ransom, to plunder 
and torture the country people, and to hire out for the 
private wars which La Tremoille, the constable, and other 
nominal subjects of Charles were incessantly carrying 
on.^ The most respectable men at court were clerks and 
the like officials, men who remembered better times, or 
at least had better traditions. In the confusion and utter 

1 P. i. 56, J.'s test. ; iii. 66, Coutes. 

2 He was born in 1380, died in 1444. See Beaucoiirt, ii. 90 ; iii. 
276, 371. 

8 Les La Tremoille pendant cinq siecles, 163-177 ; Joubert, Baron- 
nie de Craon., 336, 338 ; Quicherat, Apergus nouveaux, 21, 25, 27 ; 
Beaucourt, ii. 198. 



CHINON. 55 

dissolution of authority, these men could do little. In 
war they were naturally timid, and at this time they were 
discussing whether Charles had better take refuge in 
Dauphiny or in Languedoc, when Orleans should fall, 
and the barrier of the Loire should be forced by the 
English.^ The Bastard, Charles's best general, was at 
Orleans; his mother-in-law, Yolande, his wisest coun- 
selor, seems to have been at Angers, living on her estates. 

Five hundred years ago, however contemptible person- 
ally a king might be, his personality was important to 
his kingdom. Seldom has a king lived who deserved 
greater contempt than did Charles VII. Weak in body 
and mind, idle, lazy, luxurious, and cowardly, he was 
naturally the puppet of his worst courtiers, and the 
despair of those who hoped for reform. ^ "How many 
times have poor human creatures come to you to bewail 
the grievous extortion practiced upon them ! Alas, well 
might they cry, ' Why sleepest thou, O Lord ! ' But they 
could arouse neither you nor those about you." So wrote 
an excellent official who helped to make illustrious the 
later years of the reign. ^ 

The child of a crazy father and a licentious mother, 
Charles, as has been said already, was at times frivo- 
lous and splendor-loving, at times gloomy and solitary. 
"Never a king lost his kingdom so gayly," was a saying 
fathered upon La Hire, a fierce Gascon soldier, and the 
acknowledged wit of France.* Most of the money that 
the king could raise was spent in luxurious living or 
given to favorites. He had pledged Chinon itself to La 
Tremoille, until the favorite became dissatisfied with the 

^ P. iv. 127, Journ. Siege. 

* In speaking of the fifteenth century the word "reform " sounds 
misplaced and modern. Yet reform, in the modern sense of an ill- 
defined improvement of all branches of the government, was the 
incessant demand of Frenchmen between 1380 and 1450. 

^ Jean Juvenal des Ursins. See Beaucourt, ii. 200. 

* See Beaucourt, ii. 191. 



56 JOAN OF ARC. 

security, as being of too little value and too likely to be 
taken by the Engiisk.^ Ckarles's extravagance often 
left kim wretckedly poor, and so tke story went about 
tkat a cobbler, wko kad mended one of kis boots and could 
not get payment, tore out tke work and left tke king to 
walk about in koles. 

" La Hire and Pothon went one day 
To see him, when for banquet gay 
The courtiers did themselves regale 
With chickens two and a sheep's tail," 

sang a rkyming ckronicler of tke palace.^ At times, 
again, tke king brooded apart, in kopeless prayer, almost 
ready to abandon tke contest and to believe kimself a 
bastard, no true keir to tke tkrone. 

On reacking Ckinon, Joan at once asked to see tke 
Daupkin, but tkis kis advisers would not allow. Some of 
tkem went to ker and inquired ker errand. At first ske 
refused to speak to any one except Ckarles; but wken 
ske was told tkat ke would not see ker unless ske first 
told ker errand, ske said to tkem plainly tkat ske kad 
two commands laid upon ker by tke King of Heaven, 
one, to raise tke siege of Orleans, tke otker, to lead 
Ckarles to Rkeims tkat ke migkt be crowned and conse- 
crated tkere. Meantime, Metz and Poulengy were talk- 
ing everywkere about ker goodness, and tke wonderful 
safety tkey kad enjoyed during tke long journey wkick 
tkey kad taken togetker.^ 

Joan's visitors were not disinclined to believe ker in- 
spired, but it seemed possible tkat ker inspiration migkt 
come from kell ratker tkan from keaven. For Ckarles 
to receive a witck into kis presence would endanger kis 
person, and, besides, would greatly discredit kis majesty.^ 

1 Les La Tremoille, 177. See Beaucourt, ii. 198, 

2 Martial d'Auvergne. See Beaucourt, ii. 195. 

8 P. iii. 75, Thibault ; 115, Simon Charles ; see v. 100. 
4 P. iv. 362, Monstrelet. 



CHINON. 57 

Certain clerks and priests, accordingly, men expert in 
discerning good spirits from bad, were appointed to 
examine Joan. They could find no harm in her, but 
yielded to her simple faith, and told Charles that, as she 
professed to bring him a message from God, at least he 
ought to hear her. He yielded reluctantly, and fixed 
a time for the audience, some two or three days after 
her arrival.^ 

It was evening, and the great hall of the palace, 
lighted by dozens of torches, was filled with curious cour- 
tiers and with the royal guard. Louis of Bourbon, count 
of Vendome, led Joan into the room, dressed in black 
and gray, — the man's dress she had worn upon her jour- 
ney. She had been praying, and beside the glare of the 
torches, she saw the light which usually came with her 
voices. As she entered, Charles drew aside, thinking to 
puzzle her and try her miraculous powers, but by the 
counsel of her voices, as she afterwards said, she knew 
him, and made to him a dutiful obeisance. "Gentle 
Dauphin," she began, "I have come to you on a message 
from God, to bring help to you and to your kingdom." 
She went on to declare more particularly that she was 
bidden to raise the siege of Orleans and to conduct him 
to Rheims.2 

Charles talked with her a little while, and then sent 
lier away, back to the tower. There she was -^ , ^^_ 
cared for by one William Bellier, an officer of March lO, 

. . 1429. 

the castle, and by his wife, a matron of charac- 
ter and piety. ^ Again Joan was impatient of delay, and 
expected to be sent to Orleans at once with an army of 
relief. This was impossible for more reasons than one. 
The king's counselors could not yet make up their minds 

1 P. iii. 115, S. Charles ; v. 118, Bonlainvilliers. 

2 P. i. 56, 57, 75, J.'s test. ; iii. 4, Bastard ; 103, Pasquerel ; 116, 
S. Charles. 

* P. iii. 17, Gaucourt. 



58 JOAN OF ARC. 

to trust her entirely, and, besides, soldiers and money were 
wholly wanting. A month before, by what had seemed 
at court a superhuman effort, an army had been raised 
and sent to Orleans. It had been defeated at Rouvray, 
and had since disbanded; no intention remained of re- 
lieving the city, though there was still some idle talk of 
it.i 

Day after day all sorts of people visited Joan to test 
her in different ways. A little boy, who afterwards be- 
came her page, and who then lived in the tower, watched 
her taken back and forth to talk with the king, and often 
saw great men going to her room. Churchmen tested 
her orthodoxy; captains asked her about her knowledge 
©f war ; and, as the belief of the day made her supposed 
miraculous power rest upon her virginity, certain noble 
dames examined her to discover if she was a virgin. 
Impatient as she was, she answered them all so aptly, 
and was so gentle and simple, that all who met her grew 
to believe in her.^ 

Within a week of Joan's coming to Chinon, a royal 
messenger summoned to court a young prince of the 
blood, John, duke of AlenQon.^ Though the duke was a 
brave and warlike young man, who had been taken pris- 
oner in battle when only fifteen years old, yet so com- 
plete was the demoralization of the French that he was 
found on his estates hunting quails, and quite indifferent 
to the peril of the kingdom. When the messenger told 
him that a young girl had come to the king declaring 
herself sent by God to drive out the English and raise 

1 See P. iv. 3, Cagny. 

2 P. iii. 66, Coutes ; 102, Pasquerel. 

' AlenQon was born in 1409 ; in 1415 he succeeded his father, who 
was killed at Aginconrt ; in 1423 he married Joan, daughter of 
Charles of Orleans ; was taken prisoner at Verneuil in 1424 ; refused 
to acknowledge Henry VI. ; was ransomed in 1426. See Cagny, 
Chron., 85 recto, 86 r. ; Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. xxxii. ; Lobineau, HisL 
Brstagne, i. 577, ii. 1007 ; Wavrin du Forestel, ed. Dupont, i. 273. 



CHINON. 69 

the siege of Orleans, both his curiosity and chivalry were 
aroused, and he went at once to Chinon, reaching the 
court on the next day. He found Joan speaking with 
the king, who was still uncertain whether to trust her or 
not. She noticed the duke, and asked who he was. "It 
is the duke of Alen^on," said Charles. "You are very 
welcome," said Joan to the duke. "The more princes of 
the blood are here together the better." The young man 
was charmed by her bearing, and she was pleased by his 
open face and his courtesy ; they were soon fast friends, 
and the "gentle duke," the "fair duke," as Joan used to 
call him, became her closest comrade in arms.^ 

The council had come to no decision, the churchmen 
still visited Joan, and Charles still talked with her in the 
vain attempt to make up his mind. With her exalted 
ideas of his divine right, and with the notions of kingly 
power that belong to simple people, Joan naturally be- 
lieved tliat she had but to win him over in order to 
make all go well. To others she said as little as possible 
about her mission, but to him she spoke freely, regarding 
him with a loyalty which never wavered, and which con- 
trasted strangely with her shrewd judgment of other men. 
The day after AleuQon's arrival she went to mass with 
the king, who was regular in his devotions. Afterwards, 
he led her into a chamber of the castle, having with him 
only the duke and La Tremoille. As has been said, 
Joan believed in his divine right to the throne, but she 
believed that his right was that of God's vicegerent. 
She therefore begged him to offer his kingdom to the 
King of Heaven, and she assured him that thereafter the 
King of Heaven would do for him as He had done for 
his ancestors, and would restore him to his former estate. 

^ P. iii. 91, Alengon. Joan may have intended to refer to the 
quarrels of the king's kinsmen, which had brought on the civil war 
and the English invasion. She was both shrewd and frank enough to 
do so. 



60 JOAN OF ARC. 

They talked until dinner-time, and after dinner went 
together to ride in the meadows by the river. Until her 
journey to Lorraine it is likely that Joan had never 
mounted a horse, and she was as unfamiliar with sol- 
dierly exercise as any farmer's daughter to-day. So 
complete, however, was her trust in herself as God's mes- 
senger, or rather, so completely did she forget herself 
in her faith in the message, that she guided her horse 
and wielded her lance to the wonder of all who saw her. 
The young duke was so much pleased that he gave her 
a horse on the spot.^ 

In spite of Joan's increasing influence over both 
churchmen and captains, the king still wavered, and La 
Tremoille was indifferent. The favorite had not yet 
come to dread her power and to intrigue against her as 
he did a few months later, but on the whole he was dis- 
inclined to action. Joan was still examined and cross- 
examined by the king's confessor and by others. She an- 
swered discreetly concerning her voices and the message 
from the King of Heaven ; but she told Alengon, as they 
dined together one day, that she knew more than she had 
told her questioners.^ She thought it strange that men 
could doubt that which was so plain to her. The little boy 
who lived with her in the tower often saw her on her 
knees with her lips moving, as if in prayer; what she 
said he could not hear, but he saw that she was crying. 
She herself testified that she prayed to God and to her 
voices to turn the king's heart, and to deliver her from 
the churchmen. 

Charles VII. was a weak and contemptible man, as 
has been said, but after all he was human. Not only 
did Joan's simple faith impress him, as it impressed all 
others who saw her, but her entire trust in him gave him 
for the moment some courage and self-reliance. In times 
of despondency he had doubted if his blood were that of 

1 P. iii. 91 ; iv. 486, Windecken. ^ p. iii. 92, Aleugon. 



CHINON. 61 

the kings of France, or that of some nameless favorite of 
his mother, a doubt not unreasonable when the licentious- 
ness of Isabeau is considered and the madness of Charles 
VI. One day Joan found him in this mood. La Tre- 
moille, Alen^on, and one or two others were with him 
also, though it is quite possible they did not hear what 
passed between Joan and Charles. The precise words 
spoken are not certainly known, but Joan said to Charles 
something which removed the doubts of the wretched 
man, and seemed to him an oracle sent from heaven to 
answer his prayers. A courtier noticed that his face was 
cheerful as he came from the interview, and there was 
such a change in his manner that Joan gladly believed it 
to be the work of God, to whom she had prayed for the 
purpose.^ 

Thus far, however, she had gained for herself only a 
serious hearing. The king's confessor found her ortho- 
doxy unimpeachable. The king himself believed that she 
had wrought a miracle in reading his inmost thoughts. 
She had fired the zeal of the captains, and had shamed 
them into some hoj)e of saving France; she had charmed 
the ladies of the court by her modesty ; while the common 
people were telling wonderful stories of her exploits and 
adventures. 2 To bring this about in a fortnight was no 
mean exploit for a girl of seventeen, though Joan, be- 
lieving God to be the author of the whole work, won- 
dered only that any one should hesitate for a moment to 
trust his messenger. To the royal councilors doubt was 
natural; the examination of Joan at Chinon, however 
tedious to her, was by them considered only as the intro- 
duction to a more formal investigation which was to be 

1 P. iv. 258, 271, 280 ; v. 133, letter of Alain Cliartier. See 
iii. 116, S. Charles; and Basin, Hist. Charles VII., Lib. II. ch. x. 
The details of the story of the secret revealed to Charles are doubt- 
less legendary, but there was probably basis for it in fact. 

2 See P. iii. 203, Seguin ; v. 115 et seq., Boulaiuvilliers. 



62 JOAN OF ARC. 

made at Poitiers. Thither Joan was sent, accordingly, 
about March 10, though it is not unlikely that some 
preparation was made at once for the relief of Orleans.^ 

1 See P. iv. 128, Journ. Siege. 

According to an anonymous chronicler, P. iv. 313, Joan reached 
Chinon March 6. The entry in the Chronique de Mont St. Michel, 
ed. Luce, i. 30, is merely a copy of the statement just cited. The 
Livre Noir of La Rochelle, Quicherat, Rel. ined. sur J. , 19, gives the 
date as February 23 ; and I agree with M. de Boismarmin (^Mem. 
sur I'arrivee de J. a Chinon, in Bull. Hist, et Philol. du comite des trav. 
hist, et scient., 1892, p. 350), that the earlier date is the more probable. 

The letter to the English was written from Poitiers on March 22. 
If Joan did not reach Chinon until March 6, it is difficult to find suf- 
ficient time for the events which undoubtedly took place between her 
arrival at that place and the writing of the letter. She could hardly 
have passed less than ten or twelve days at Chinon. It was two days 
before she saw the king [see P. iii. 4, Bastard ; 115, Simon 
Charles], and a day or two more before she saw the duke of Alen- 
qon. On the day after his arrival occurred the ride through the 
meadows by the river. Thereafter a committee was appointed to 
examine her. The examination took place, a favorable report was 
made, and the king and Joan started for Poitiers. For the length of 
Joan's stay at Chinon, see, also, P. iii. 66, Coutes. If she arrived 
at Chinon on March 6, therefore, she could not well have arrived at 
Poitiers before March 19 or 20, and, while the testimony is not posi- 
tive, yet its tendency indicates decidedly that more than two or three 
days elapsed between her arrival and the dispatch of the letter to 
the English on March 22. Moreover, there is an entry in the MS. 
Gaigui^res, 286, f. 2, in the Bibliotheque Nationale, stating that 
Charles was at Poitiers March 11. The entry occurs in a list of 
places and dates confusedly thrown together to show the itinerary of 
the kings of France. The list is of considerable age, but no au- 
thorities are given, and some of the entries are manifestly incorrect. 
For example, on April 9, Charles is said to have been at Beaugency, 
which place remained in the hands of the English until June 18. 
Still, though the authority of the MS. Gaigniferes is not to be trusted 
implicitly, yet it is entitled to some weight, and it agrees perfectly 
with the natural order of things, supposing that Joan reached Chi- 
non on February 23. This would give a fortnight or thereabouts 
for the events which took place at Chinon, and rather more than 
ten days for the examination at Poitiers and the other events which 
happened there before the letter was written. Again, if Josta reached 



CHINON. 63 

Chinon on February 23, she must have left Vaucouleurs February 
12 or 13. On February 12 was fought the battle of the Herrings, 
and Baudricourt is said to have written a letter, mentioning Joan's 
announcement of the battle at the very hour when the battle took 
place. Now the letter which Baudricourt sent off with Joan was 
probably written very near the moment of her departure. If she 
left Vaucouleurs late in the afternoon of February 12, Baudricourt's 
letter would probably have been written at or about noon on that 
day, the very moment when the battle was taking place. If, on the 
other hand, she did not reach Chinon until March 6, she did not 
leave Vaucouleurs until February 23, in which case, news of the 
battle of the Herrings would have reached Baudricourt before her 
departure, of which the contrary is implied in the Journ. Siege, P. 
iv. 128. For the full discussion of this not very important matter, 
see the monograph of M. de Boismarmin, cited above. 



CHAPTER YI. 

POITIEES. 

For eighteen years, from 1418 to 1436, loyal France 
Mar. 10- ^^^ ^^o capital. Paris was in the hands of the 
22, 1429. English, and among the cities faithful to Charles 
VII. there was none important enough to take its place. 
The king lived much at Bourges, — which still shows traces 
of the royal residence, — sometimes at Tours, often er in 
his castellated palaces of Chinon and Mehun sur Yevre. 
To maintain the judicial system, however, it was necessary 
that the court of appeal should have a safe place for its 
sittings, and in September, 1418, some four months after 
the fall of Paris, the Armagnacs established at Poitiers 
a parliament or court, to take the place of that which 
still sat in Paris, but now served the interests of the 
Anglo -Burgundian party. To this court were summoned 
several excellent officials, learned in the law, who had 
followed the Dauphin in his flight. The sittings of the 
court and the presence of these men drew to Poitiers not 
only the lawyers of the kingdom, both ecclesiastical and 
lay, but so many learned men besides that in 1431, only 
two years after Joan's visit, a university was founded 
there, with faculties of theology, law, medicine, and arts. 
In this city, if anywhere in Charles's dominions, it 
seemed probable that men might be found able to dis- 
cern between good spirits and bad.^ 

1 See Beaucourt, i. 352; ii. 571; Neuville, in Revue Hist., t. vi. 1, 272; 
P^chenard, Jean Juvenal des Ursins, 79 ; Flaiidin, Parlement de Poi- 
tiers sous Charles VII. j Bouchet, Annales d'Aquitaine, 242, and Uni- 
versite de la ville de Poitiers, bound in the same volume. Doubtless 



POITIERS. 65 

To Poitiers Joan went, accordingly, tlie king with her, 
and some of his councilors.^ The distance is about fifty 
miles, and the ride probably took two days. On her 
arrival in the city, she was lodged at the house of the 
attorney-general, John Rabateau, a man of wealth and 
distinction, married to a discreet wife. In the house was 
a little chapel, where Joan went to pray, both after her 
meals and sometimes in the night. ^ 

A meeting of the royal council was soon held, over 
which presided the archbishop of Rheims, then chancellor 
of France. The council appointed a committee of inves- 
tigation, which included several professors of theology, 
an abbot, a canon of Poitiers, and one or two friars.^ 
Escorted by a squire, this committee went to visit Joan 
at Rabateau's house. When they entered, she came to 
meet them ; but the sight of the priests irritated her, as 
she recollected the prolonged examinations to which the 
clergy had subjected her at Chinon, and so she went up 
to the squire, whose military dress pleased her, clapped 
him on the shoulder, and told him that she wished she 
had more men of his way of thinking. The abbot gravely 
informed her that the committee had been sent to her 
from the king. "I am quite ready to believe that you 

the university, also, was intended to rival that in Paris. When the 
English lost Paris in 1436, they in turn established a university at 
Caen. 

1 John I'Archier was then mayor. See list of mayors in Bouehet, 
p. 61. It is almost certain that Charles went with Joan to Poitiers. 
Archives de la Vienne, Memoires des antiquites de l' Quest, xv. 82; 
Lettres orig. fran. Gaignieres, 896, i. f. 25 ; P. iii. 209, 210, Aulon ; 
Rel. ined. sur J., 19. One or two persons say that Charles sent 
Joan to Poitiers (Garivel, Barbin, Simon Charles), but such doubt- 
ful testimony cannot outweigh the strong evidence of his presence 
in Poitiers. Perhaps Joan did not travel in company with the 
king. 

2 P. iii. 19, Garivel ; 74, Thibault ; 82, Barbin. See Ledain, 
/. a Poitiers, and P. iii. 209. 

8 See Raguenet de St. Albin, Lesjuges de J. a Poitiers. 



66 JOAN OF ARC. 

have been sent to examine me," she answered. "I know 
neither A nor B." ^ 

Naturally, Joan's impatience did not deter the com- 
mittee from proceeding to the investigation, and they 
began to ply her with questions. Some one, apparently 
the abbot, asked her why she had come to court. " I am 
come from the King of Heaven," Joan answered, "to 
raise the siege of Orleans, and to lead the Dauphin to 
Rheims, for his coronation and consecration." "But 
what made you think of coming? " asked a professor of 
theology. Joan disliked to talk of her visions, as has 
been said, but she saw the need of some explanation, and 
she told them how her voices had bidden her go to 
France, nothing doubting, since God had great pity on 
its people. "You tell us," said William Aymery, an- 
other professor, "that God wishes to free the people of 
France from their distress. If He wishes to free them, 
there is no need of the soldiers you ask for." "In God's 
name," said Joan, "the men-at-arms will fight, and God 
will give the victory." With which rejDly Master Wil- 
liam himself was content, as one of his colleagues testi- 
fied. 

This colleague, Seguin, a Carmelite friar of learning 
and repute,^ next took his turn. He was a native of 
Limoges, speaking the dialect of his province. Out of 
curiosity, or merely for the sake of cross-examination, he 
asked Joan in what language her voices spoke to her. 
"In a better than yours," said the girl, exasperated by 
what she thought a frivolous question. "Do you believe 
in God?" asked the undaunted friar. "Better than you 
do," Joan answered, this time in all seriousness. Se- 
guin then told her that God did not wish them to trust 
her without receiving some sign or credential, and he 
added that they could not advise the king to risk his sol- 

1 P. iii. 19, Garivel ; 74, Thibault ; 83, Barbin ; 203, Seguin. 
^ See Universite de la ville de Poitiers, 1. 



POITIERS. 67 

diers on tlie strength of her simple word. "In God's 
name, I have not come to show signs in Poitiers; but 
lead me to Orleans and I will show you the signs for 
which I am sent." The severe Carmelite friar was frank 
enough to tell this tale of his own discomfiture. 

The sober churchmen listened as Joan went on to tell 
them what was to happen in France. The English should 
be overthrown and Orleans should be relieved ; the Dauphin 
should be crowned at Rheims ; Paris should return to its 
rightful lord ; and the captive duke of Orleans should be 
brought back from England. First of all, the English 
must be summoned to withdraw, and, turning to a pro- 
fessor who stood by, she bade him write in the name 
of the King of Heaven to Suffolk and the other Eng- 
lish captains before Orleans. The committee had heard 
enough, and went back to the council; it is likely that 
Joan went into Rabateau's chapel to pray.^ 

She had no great reason to complain of the delay of 
her examiners at Poitiers, though some further inquiry was 
made into her character. There were men at court dis- 
gusted with the cowardice and treachery of La Tremoille, 
and not unwilling to fight for France ; the energy of these 
men was roused by Joan's enthusiasm. Charles's mother- 
in-law, Yolande,^ was come to Poitiers. She examined 
Joan herself, and made her report to the council, which 
had met again to consider what advice should be given to 
the king. ^ There was some discussion; the members of 
the committee told the story of their interview with Joan, 
saying that she had answered as if she were a clerk, and 
asserting their own belief that she was sent from God. 

1 P. iii. 74, Thibault ; 205, Seguln. See P. iv. 211, Chron. Puc. 

2 She had already advanced money to help the defense of Orleans. 
Loiseleur, Compte des depenses, 179. 

8 P. iii. 102, Pasquerel ; 209, Aulou. See P. iii. 93, where Alengon 
says that he was sent to Yolande, but does not say to what place. 
She furnished provisions for the army. 



68 JOAN or AEG. 

John Erault reminded the council of a certain Mary of 
Avignon, who had come to Charles VI. and had foretold 
the sufferings of the kingdom. She had had visions 
touching the desolation of France, and in them had seen 
armor coming to her, whereat she wept, fearing that she 
was intended to serve as a soldier. It had been told her, 
however, that the arms were for a virgin who should 
come after her, and should save France from its enemies. 
This virgin Erault believed Joan to be.^ 

How much weight the council gave to the prophecies 
of Mary of Avignon cannot be determined. Joan's own 
words and bearing and the shame these had roused in 
some of the councilors were probably more efficient 
causes of action. Within a few days of her arrival at 
Poitiers, the council advised the king to grant her re- 
quest, and to send her with men and provisions to Or- 
leans. The case of the kingdom was desperate, they 
said, and no chance should be neglected. That they 
really put much confidence in Joan is unlikely; that a 
girl should inspire them with any confidence at all doubt- 
less seemed marvelous to all but Joan herself.^ 

Some weeks must pass before an army could be assem- 
bled, but one thing Joan insisted upon doing at once. 
She had been sent by God to save France, but she was 
singularly free from any hatred of the English, and so 
great was her faith in her mission, so complete seemed 
her triumph over the incredulity of courtiers and church- 
Mar. 22, men, that she hoped that even the English would 
1429. heed her, and at her bidding would leave the 

country. On March 22 she caused the following letter 
to be written and sent to them : — 

JESUS MAEIA 

King of England, and you, duke of Bedford, who style your- 
self regent of France, you William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, 

1 P. iii. 83, Barbin. 

" See P. iii. 83, Barbin ; 93, Alengon ; 102, Pasquerel ; 205, Seguin. 



POITIERS. 69 

John, Lord Talbot, and Thomas, Lord Scales, who style your- 
self lieutenants of the said duke of Bedford, give heed to 
the King of Heaven, and yield up to the Maid, sent for that 
purpose by God, the King of Heaven, the keys of all the good 
cities which you have taken and outraged in France. She is 
come from God to rescue the blood royal. She is ready to 
make peace if you will heed her and depart from France and 
yield up what you hold in it. And do you, archers, soldiers, 
gentlemen, and others who are before Orleans, go into your own 
country, at God's command ; but if you do not, look to hear 
news of the Maid, who will shortly go to see you to your great 
hurt. King of England, if you will not do this, I am the head 
of the army, and wherever I meet your people in France I will 
make them flee, whether they will or no, and, if they will not 
obey, I will kill them all. I am sent from God, the King of 
Heaven, body for body, to drive you out of all France ; but if 
the soldiers obey, I will have mercy on them. Be not obstinate, 
therefore, for you shall not hold the kingdom of France from God, 
the King of Heaven, son of St. Mary ; from him shall Charles 
hold it, the true heir, for God, the King of Heaven, wills it so, 
and so has it been revealed by the Maid,^ who will enter Paris 
with a good company. If you do not heed the word of God and 
the Maid, in whatever place we find you, we will put you to 
a greater rout than has been known in France for a hundred 
years, if you will not believe. And be sure that the King of 
Heaven will send greater strength to the Maid and to her good 
soldiers than you can bring with all your might, and by heavy 
buffets you shall discover who has the best right from the God 
of Heaven. The Maid begs you and bids you, duke of Bedford, 
not to bring ruin on yourself. If you will heed her, you may 
come in her company to a place where the French will do the 
bravest deed ever done for Christendom. Answer, then, if you 
will give peace to the city of Orleans, and, if you do not, ex- 
pect shortly grievous damage. Written this Tuesday in Holy 
Week.2 

^ See p. 59, and the request which Joan made that Charles should 
surrender the kingdom to God and hold it from Him as his vicege- 
rent. 

* The copies of this letter differ slightly. That produced at J.'s 



70 JOAN OF ARC. 

Joan was utterly illiterate, of course ; it is doubtful if 
she could sign her name unaided ; the letter was written 
for her by some clerk, and may have been somewhat 
revised by the council. ^ That the substance of it is hers, 
however, there can be no doubt ; it is full of her charac- 
teristic expressions, and of the repetitions used by illiter- 
ate people when most in earnest. Even the reference 
made in the last sentence but one to a crusade against 
the Saracens may have been her own, for such a cru- 
sade was then the final wish of all Christendom. ^ If 
the phraseology seems unduly boastful and self-confident, 
such phraseology, also, is characteristic, though her boast- 
ing was really in God, and her self-confidence in God's 
messenger. When she spoke of the peasant girl, Joan 
of Arc, it was with reticence and modesty. The answer 
which the English made to her summons will appear in 
due time.^ 

This letter of Joan makes plain another matter. Lest 
she should seem to have failed in any part of her mission, 
it has sometimes been urged that this mission was con- 
fined to the relief of Orleans and the consecration of 
Charles, and that at his coronation her divine mission 
was concluded. The letter shows, on the contrary, that 
the real end of her mission, as she always conceived it, 
was the rescue of France, to compass which end Orleans 
and Rheims were but the means. Her expeditions thither 
differed from her other acts only in this, that the for- 
mer were means divinely appointed, commanded by her 
voices, while the latter were means humanly chosen to 
accomplish a divinely appointed end. We shall consider 

trial, p. i. 240, which closely agrees with another from a French 
source, printed P. v. 96, is probably more accurate than those given 
by the chroniclers, P. iv. 139, 215, 306. 

1 P. i. 55, 84, J.'s test. « See P. v. 126. 

8 See the account of Joan brought about this time by tinkers from 
Domremy to Rouen. P. iii. 192, Moreau. 



POITIERS. 71 

later how she regarded her mission after Charles's conse- 
cration, but the distinction above mentioned should always 
be borne clearly in mind. 

Although the council had decided to send Joan to 
Orleans, a full month must pass before men and April, 
provisions could be gathered for the expedition, i*^- 
She knew the need of both, and was no longer impatient; 
a few days were passed in Poitiers, and then she returned 
with the court to Chinon. Sixty-five years afterwards, 
there lived in Poitiers a very old man, who still liked to 
tell how she rode from the city in full armor, and who 
pointed out the stone from which she had mounted her 
horse. ^ 

While waiting for the troops to gather, Joan went 
from Chinon to St. Plorent near Saumur, the seat of her 
friend, the duke of Alen9on. There his mother and his 
wife received the young girl; and "God knows," wrote 
the chronicler of the family, "the cheer they made her 
during the three or four days she spent in the place." 
His wife, indeed, Joan of Orleans, had a peculiar inter- 
est in the purposes of Joan of Arc, for she was the 
daughter of Charles, duke of Orleans, then nearly fifteen 
years a prisoner in England, whose city the English were 
besieging. The duchess was but a girl herself,^ and as 
her husband prepared again to take up arms, she feared 
for his safety, remembering that for several years of her 
young married life he, too, had been a prisoner of the 
English. She told her fears to Joan of Arc, accordingly; 
how long his captivity had lasted, how hard it had been 
to raise the money for his ransom, and how she had 

1 Bouchet, Ann. Aquitaine, 246. Apparently, Charles left Poitiers 
March 23 or 24. Lettres orig. /ran. Gaignieres, 896, i. f. 25 ; MS. 
Gaignieres, 286, f. 156. For the rest, see Bouchet, Ann. Aq., 246; 
P. iv. 211, Chron. Puc. A tower in Poitiers was named after J. 
P. V. 195. 

2 Born Sept. 13, 1409 ; m. 1421 ; d. 1432. 



72 JOAN OF ARC. 

begged him to stay at home. The frank confession was 
made just as Joan and the duke were starting for the 
army. "Do not be afraid, my lady," said Joan. "I 
will bring him safe back to you, as well as he now is, or 
even better." ^ 

About the middle of April, Joan left the abbey and 
went to Tours, the most important city in that part of 
France. 2 According to the custom of the time, she was 
here provided with a military household befitting the 
position she was about to take. Louis of Coutes, the 
boy who had lived with her in the tower at Chinon, was 
made her page, together with another boy named Ray- 
mond. John of Aulon, a discreet young man, became 
her squire. John Pasquerel, an Austin friar and an 
acquaintance of Metz or of Poulengy, was by one of them 
brought to her and acted as her confessor. He was a 
gossipy, amiable man, with a good opinion of himself, 
who became sincerely attached to Joan, but had no influ- 
ence over her.^ 



^ P. iii. 96, AlenQon ; iv. 10, Cagny. It seems that the young 
duchess at some time followed her husband as far as Orleans. P. 
V. 264. 

'^ J. stayed at Tours with one La Pau or Dupuy, P. iii. 66, Coutes ; 
101, Pasquerel. 

8 See P. iii. 65, Coutes ; 100, Pasquerel ; 209, Aulon. For her 
armor, see v. 258. The evidence that her cousin was her chaplain 
is weak. See P. v. 252 ; B. de Molandon, Fam. de J., 125. Accord- 
ing to Pasquerel's testimony as reported, he met Joan's mother at 
Le Puy en Velay, together with some of those who had escorted Joan 
to Chinon. M. Quieherat (P. iii. 101, note) points out that both Le 
Puy and Joan's mother are out of the question, and conjectures that 
for " mater " we should read " frater," and for the Latin name of Le 
Puy the very similar Latin name of Azay le Rideau. Probably M. 
Quicherat's emendations are as good as any that can be suggested. 
M. Luce (J. a Domremy, ch. sii.) exhibits great erudition in assign- 
ing possible reasons for a visit of Isabel of Are to Le Puy, — a char- 
acteristic example of the madness into which the learning of that 
eminent scholar often led him. 



POITIERS. 73 

At this time, also, two of her brothers joined her.^ 
During the preceding months, official inquiry had been 
made at Domremy concerning Joan and her family, and 
probably the young men were not sorry of a chance to 
follow their sister to court, where she had suddenly made 
so great a commotion. The like opportunity of advance- 
ment had never before come to boys in Domremy, and 
thereafter John and Peter accompanied Joan in most of 
her campaigns. They were commonplace fellows, glad to 
avail themselves of their sister's reputation, which brought 
them patents of nobility, lucrative offices and lands, and 
off which they lived for the rest of their lives. Their 
conduct was not meaner than that of many other persons 
in like case ; but it is clear that they wholly lacked the 
spirit of their sister, and that, from the time she left 
Domremy, neither they nor the rest of her family in any 
way guided her.^ 

Her armor, her pages, and her squire, even her confes- 
sor, Joan received as a matter of course, without any 
choice on her part; for two things she gave precise di- 
rections. At St. Catherine of Fierbois she had heard 
three masses on her journey to court. The church was 
a resort for pilgrims, and many votive offerings had been 
made to the saint ;^ near the altar, perhaps beneath it, 
was an old chest, holding fetters offered by prisoners, 
rusty swords, and other bits of iron. Joan's voices bade 

1 It is probable tliat they joined her at this time, though not cer- 
tain. They were both with her on the expedition to Orleans (P. iv. 
153, Journ. Siege; and see v. 213, 260), and would hardly have had 
time, after Joan had been accepted, to join her before she reached 
Tours. The arrival of one of them mentioned by Laval (v. 108) 
was probably after a short absence. 

^ The failure of Joan ever to mention her brothers, considering 
that they were almost constantly with her, is very significant. She 
said that her brothers then had her effects (P. i. 78), and that Charles 
had given them coats-of-arms (i. 117). That is all. 

8 See Bourassd, Miracles de Madame Ste. Katherbie. 



74 JOAN OF ARC. 

her send to this place and ask for a sword; an armorer 
of Tours went thither and brought it to her, cleaned by 
the care of the priests of the church, and cased in a scab- 
bard which they caused to be made. 

The biographers of Joan have generally asserted that 
she knew of the existence of the sword in the church by 
revelation of her voices. At that time, without doubt, 
this was the belief of most people, but their belief proves 
little. The growth of legends concerning Joan was very 
rapid, ^ and it was commonly reported not only that she 
had never seen the sword, but that she had never been 
inside the church, and this, though she had spoken of 
hearing masses there. While in the church, she proba- 
bly saw or at least heard of the old chest with its rusty 
contents, and later received the divine command to take 
this well-tried weapon of some pious pilgrim for her 
own.^ 

^ See particularly the deposition of Pasquerel, P. iii. 100, and the 
letter of Boulainvilliers, v. 114. 

* This seems to me the reasonable conclusion, though opposed to 
that of most critics. For the common belief of the time, see P. iv. 54, 
129, 212. The clerk of La Rochelle, Rel. ined,, 22, is not so ex- 
plicit, and says merely that the sword was found in a chest which, 
according to common report, had not been opened for twenty years. 
Bouchet, Ann. Aquitaine, 246, tells how the sword happened to be in 
the church, but follows the legend in asserting that Joan herself had 
never been there. The material part of Joan's testimony on the sub- 
ject runs thus: " While she was at Tours or Chinon, she sent to ask 
for a sword which was in the church of St. Catherine of Fierbois, be- 
hind the altar; and immediately afterwards it was found, all rusty. 
Being asked how she knew the sword was there, she replied that the 
sword was rusty in the earth (or with the earth), and had five 
crosses on it; and she knew it was there by means of her voices, and 
she never saw the man who went to ask for the sword. She wrote 
to the clergymen of the place to be pleased to let her have that sword, 
and they sent it to her. It was not very deep in the earth behind 
the altar, she thinks ; she is not sure, however, whether it was before 
the altar or behind it; but she thinks that she wrote that the said 
Bword was behind the altar." P. i. 76. "Being asked what was 



POITIERS. 75 

Much more important than her sword was the banner 
which at this time she caused to be made. She had no 
love of arms and, like most women, felt a horror of 
blood ; she therefore wished to use her sword as little as 
she might. ^ She was the King of Heaven's messenger 
to save the kingdom of France, and she gladly obeyed 
her voices when they told her to carry the banner of the 
King of Heaven. The field of the banner was sown with 
lilies. In the midst of it God was painted, holding the 
world and sitting upon the clouds; on either side an 
angel knelt; the motto was Jesus Maria. When 
asked at her trial which she loved better, her sword or 
her banner, she answered that she loved the banner bet- 
ter by far, yes, forty times as much as the sword. It 
told, indeed, the story of her mission, as she conceived 
it : the lilies of France, the country she was sent to save ; 
God, who had sent her; and Jesus, son of Mary, her 
watchword, which she prefixed to her more solemn let- 
ters, the last word she uttered at the instant of death.^ 

the use of the five crosses which were on the sword which she found 
at St. Catherine of Fierbois, she replied that she knew nothing about 
it." P. i. 179. 

When it is borne in mind that these words represent not Joan's 
exact language, but the notary's understanding of it, they seem to me 
to import that the notary shared the legendary belief, but that Joan 
meant to say no more than that her voices had directed her to send 
for a sword which she had seen or heard about when she had wor- 
shiped in the church a few weeks before. That the sword was an 
ex-voto is pretty plain, and when we consider how ex-votos are generally 
kept, the likelihood of Joan's having seen it is not lessened. It must be 
admitted that the most competent critic of Joan's history, M. Jules 
Quicherat, holds the other opinion, and believes that she had never 
seen the sword. Ap. nouv., 69. As M. Quicherat was by no means 
a traditional Catholic, his opinion was not influenced by religious 
prepossessions, and is certainly entitled to great weight. See, also, 
his note to the Rel. ined., p. 11. 

1 P. iii, 205, Seguin. 

2 See P. i. 78, 117, 181, J.'s test. ; v. 154, 271. Tlie acconnts of 
her banner vary considerably ; probably she had more than one. See 
iii. 7 ; iv. 152. 



76 JOAN OF ARC. 

After staying about ten days at Tours, Joan went up 
the Loire to Blois, where the troops had their rendezvous, 
as it was the nearest city to Orleans which remained in 
Charles's hands. It had been hard to find money to pay 
soldiers or to buy provisions, but by the efforts of Yo- 
lande, the queen's mother, of Alen9on and other lords, 
and of some patriotic cities, like La Rochelle,^ the money 
was obtained at last. Not long before Joan's departure, 
the learned men chosen to investigate her case made their 
official report. The real decision to employ her had been 
reached at Poitiers some weeks earlier ; but now that she 
was to be the duly commissioned agent of the king of 
France, it was thought best that those skilled in such 
matters should formally certify to Charles their opinion 
that he might safely use the help she offered him. If 
she failed, and his orthodoxy was attacked for employing 
a witch, such certificates would be useful as showing that 
he had acted in good faith. 

The language of the report was very guarded. Con- 
sidering the need of the realm and the prayers to God of 
his poor subjects, the king ought neither lightly to reject 
nor lightly to accept the help of the Maid, but, following 
Holy Scripture, ought to prove her, both by inquiry into 
her past life, and also by asking of her a sign, as did 
Ahaz, Gideon, and other persons in like case. The 
report then went on to set forth that for six weeks the 
king had closely examined the Maid, and had found in 
her no evil, but, on the contrary, many virtues. As to 
the sign, she had declared that she would show it before 
Orleans, and nowhere else, this being God's will. 
Wherefore, all things considered, the king ought not to 
prevent her from going to Orleans, but should send her 
there in honorable fashion, hoping in God, inasmuch as 
to doubt her without cause would be to despise the Holy 

^ Loiselenr, Compte des depenses, 186. On April 13 a considerable 
Bum of money was brought to Orleans. P. iv. 145. 



POITIERS. 77 

Spirit, and to render himself unworthy of God's help, 
as said Gamaliel to the Jews concerning the Apostles.^ 
Thus formally approved, about nine weeks after leaving 
Vaucouleurs in the company of two lawless adventurers, 
Joan entered Blois with the captain of Chinon and the 
chancellor of France.^ 

^ P. iii. 391. Written opinions were obtained from other dis- 
tinguished experts at about this time. See the memoir of the arch- 
bishop of Embrun, P. vi. 565 ; and see P. iii. 411 ; v. 474. 

2 P. iii. 4, Bastard. From the testimony of Joan, P. i. 71-73, 
94, 171, it has been supposed that an elaborate proc^s-verbal of 
her examination at Poitiers was prepared ; see, also, the note of M. 
Quicherat, v. 471. This seems at least doubtful; no record was 
produced at the second trial, though one of Joan's examiners, Seguin, 
then testified at some length. Joan undoubtedly supposed that 
written minutes of her examination were made, and this may have 
been done, but probably these minutes were informal, and soon de- 
stroyed. Garivel, iii. 19, says that the examination continued about 
three weeks, but Joan's letter to the English was written within less 
than a fortnight of her arrival in Poitiers. The opinion of the 
doctors, iii. 391, was written six weeks after Joan's arrival at Chinon, 
and therefore about April 6. In any event, it was issued after Joan 
left Poitiers. 



CHAPTER Vn. 

THE SIEGE OP ORLEANS. 

To understand the operations for the relief of Orleans, 
it is necessary first to know something of the siege and of 
the campaign which preceded it. 

In the spring of 1428, as has been said already,^ the 
English with their Burgundian allies occupied 

1428 ox 

Normandy, Picardy, Artois, Isle de France, 
Perche, all French Flanders except Tournai, nearly all 
Champagne, considerable parts of Maine and of the 
Gatinais, besides Burgundy and the Nivernais in the 
east, and the most of Gascony and Guyenne in the 
southwest. The duke of Brittany, irritated by the plots 
of Charles's favorites and the disgrace of his brother, the 
constable Richemont, inclined to the English alliance, 
though he gave them little active help.^ Charles ruled 
over only the central provinces of France, Dauphiny 
being almost as a foreign possession, while Languedoc 
sometimes wavered in its allegiance and often was com- 
pelled to make its own treaties with the English parti- 
sans.^ 

These central provinces of France are bounded north 
and east by the Loire. Rising in the mountains of Lan- 
guedoc, less than a hundred miles from the Mediterra- 
nean, this river flows northward for two hundred and fifty 
miles, though bending more and more to the west, until 
at Orleans it comes within seventy miles of Paris. 

^ Page 11, supra. 

3 See Lobineau, Hist. Bretagne, i. 572 et seq. 

8 See Flourac, Jean I. Comte de Foix. 



THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS. 79 

Speaking roughly, the duke of Burgundy owned the ter- 
ritory to the east of the Loire ; the provinces to the west 
of it were loyal. From Orleans the Loire continues its 
sweep for about sixty miles, here bending in a curve to 
the south and west until it reaches Tours; from Tours 
it flows nearly due west to the Bay of Biscay. North of 
the Loire, Charles still had some possessions, but the 
towns between Orleans and Paris were always in danger, 
frequently taken and retaken, while the broad river and 
the fortresses which covered its passage kept the central 
provinces reasonably clear of the English. If the regent 
Bedford would make his nephew really king of all France, 
the Loire must be crossed. 

For thirteen years England had made great sacrifices 
both in men and money to accomplish the conquest of 
France. When it is considered that these sacrifices were 
made by a country neither rich nor populous and com- 
paratively rude, and that they were made to carry on a 
foreign war, some idea may be gained of the prosperity 
and strength which an insular position and domestic peace 
had given to England.^ The campaign of 1427, directed 
against the Gatinais, and especially against Montargis, 
which lies about forty miles northeast of Orleans, had 
failed. For the campaign of 1428 greater jjreparation 
was made. Large sums of money were subscribed and 
borrowed ; the mayor and citizens of London lent three 
thousand pounds.^ 

The method of raising an army in the fifteenth century 
differed much from that practiced to-day. The old feu- 
dal levies, serving because it was their duty, like the great 

^ Domestic peace in the fifteenth century is a comparative term. 
There had been civil war in England during part of the reign of 
Henry IV., and seditious insurrections under Richard II., but for cen- 
turies England had enjoyed domestic peace in a far greater degree 
than any Continental country. 

2 Stevenson, Letters, etc., Illustrative of the Wars of the English in 
France, t. i., lix. 



80 JOAN OF ARC. 

standing armies of tlie present generation, lost their effi- 
ciency wlien the larger part of the community was no 
longer used to arms. Regular forces of professional sol- 
diers, kept constantly on foot like the armies of the eigh- 
teenth century, were as yet almost unluiown. The Eng- 
lish and French armies were composed mostly, though 
not altogether, of companies whose captains were under 
written contract with the sovereign to supply a certain 
number of men at so much a head. In such contracts, 
the rights of both parties were carefully guarded. The 
troop was to be inspected frequently, so that the king 
should get his money's worth, while payment was to be 
made for soldiers disabled or killed; no captain was 
allowed to recruit his troop at the expense of another's, 
and the division of ransom was regulated exactly. ^ This 
waging war by contract tended to lengthen operations, 
since peace deprived the contracting captain and most of 
his men of their professional livelihood. It was more 
difficult to maintain discipline among troops furnished 
under this system of contract than among troops levied 
directly by the sovereign, and so the foundation of a reg- 
ular standing army by the organization of the French 
gendarmerie at the end of the Hundred Years' War soon 
resulted in the complete overthrow of the English. In 
1428, the principal contractor employed by the English 
and the general of their army was Thomas Montagu, earl 
of Salisbury in England, and count of Perche in France. 
He was in the prime of life, accounted "the most crafty, 
skillful, and lucky of the princes and captains of the reahn 
of England." He landed at Calais about July 1, and 
went to Paris, where the plan of the campaign was set- 
tled in council. Some favored an attack upon Anjou, 
and it has been said that the regent Bedford agreed with 

1 See Boucher de Molandon, Uarmee anglaise, 209, and passim ; 
Jarry, Le compte de Varmee anglaise ; Loiseleur, Compte des depenses 
faitespar Charles VII. j Stevenson, Wars Eng., vol. 11,44. 



THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS. 81 

them, but it was decided to make Orleans the objective 
point. 1 

The choice was natural, and seems to have been a wise 
one. To attack Charles effectively, the line of the 
Loire must be forced, and Orleans was the point on the 
Loire nearest Paris, the English base of supplies. The 
men of Orleans felt themselves aggrieved by the choice, 
and the reasons for their hope of immunity illustrate the 
strangely personal character of mediaeval warfare. Charles 
of Orleans, their feudal lord, had been a prisoner in 
England since Agincourt, and it seemed to some people 
imchivalrous to attack the possessions of a man who 
could not defend himself. Again, it was said that Salis- 
bury himself had promised the duke to let his city alone, 
— a strange promise for a commanding general to make, 
though some men pretended to name the sum of money 
paid for it. In fact, Salisbury had negotiated a treaty 
to this effect with the Bastard of Orleans, the duke's 
agent in his absence, but the regent Bedford had re- 
fused to ratify it, saying with reason that an imprisoned 
prince could not compel his provinces to observe neu- 
trality, and that his request was not a sufficient reason 
for suspending military operations.^ 

Though the English council had decided to attack Or- 
leans, Salisbury began his campaign by move- Augrist 
ments which would open the road to Orleans and ^*^^- 
Anjou alike. At the beginning of August he marched 
toward Chartres with four or five thousand soldiers, about 
half of whom he had brought with him from England, 

^ B. de Molandon, Uarmee anglaise, 50 ; Monstrelet, Bk. II. chs. 
xlix., Hi. ; Beaurepaire, Etats de Normandie sous la domination anglaise, 
168, If the English army had been directed against Anjou, it would 
still have attempted to cross the Loire, but would probably have 
sought passage a hundred miles below Orleans. 

^ B. de Molandon, 59; Villaret, Campagnes des Anglais, 64; P. v. 
286. 



82 JOAN OF AUG. 

while the rest had been raised in France or drafted from 
the English garrisons in Normandy and elsewhere. Most 
of his men were English, a few were Frenchmen who 
held to Henry VI. ; at one time or another he was joined 
by some Burgundian allies. Acting with great vigor, he 
as:ain retook some towns which the French had retaken 
in their successful campaign of the preceding year. On 
reaching Chartres about August 15, he disclosed his plan 
of operations, and Orleans was seen to be his objective 
point, though he did not march directly against it. Be- 
fore doing so, he proposed to isolate the city by reducing 
all the neighboring towns, and he meant to besiege it 
only after he had secured his own communications, and 
had thoroughly cut those of the French. ^ 

The only serious resistance was that made by Jan- 
ville, a place about twenty miles north of Orleans, and 
Janville held out but a week. First the town was occu- 
pied, and then the castle was stormed, after the fiercest 
assault, as Salisbury wrote to the mayor of London, that 
he had ever seen. Its defenders were treated harshly, 
though not more so than the laws of war allowed. The 
Septem- warning thus given was heeded. About Septem- 
ber, 1428. jjgj, 5 Salisbury wrote out a list of forty towns 
which he had taken in as many days. In some cases the 
inhabitants swore allegiance to Henry VI. ^ 

Among these towns were several which secured the 
passage of the Loire, both above and below Orleans. 
Ten miles down-stream on the north bank of the river 
was Meung, six miles farther was Beaugency, both with 
bridges strongly fortified. Ten or twelve miles up-stream 
on the south bank was Jargeau, with another fortified 
bridge. All these places the English occupied in force. 

^ Villaret, 62 et seq. ; Jarry, 78 ; Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. li. ; 
Chron. Puc, ch. xxxi. 

2 Villaret, 63, and notes, 141 ; Chron. Puc, ch. xxxi. ; Monstrelet, 
Bk. II. ch. li. 



THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS, 83 

Above Jargeau was Sully, belonging to La Tremoille, 
which he hastened to surrender, probably in order to 
save his property from damage. ^ 

Now that the passage of the Loire was secured at 
Meung, Beaugency, and Jargeau, it may be asked why 
the English waited to besiege Orleans and did not rather 
push on at once, into the heart of France. It was possi- 
ble for them to march by way of Jargeau directly upon 
Bourges, having a safe line of communication and retreat 
by way of Auxerre and the Burgundian possessions east 
of the Loire ; but to do this would leave Paris and Nor- 
mandy open to French attack. It was possible, also, to 
pass the Loire below Orleans and march on Tours and 
Poitiers ; but this would expose the army to great danger 
in case of defeat, as experience had shown once, and was 
to show again, that neither Meung nor Beaugency could 
defend the passage of the Loire beyond a few hours, 
or a day or two at the most. Salisbury's best reason 
for instantly besieging Orleans, however, was his desire 
to use in attacking a strong and valuable city the im- 
petus he had gained by his rapid success. For the long 
investment which actually followed, he was in no way 
responsible. 

When the English army took the field, a French army 
should have taken the field to meet it, but Charles was 
without that useful device for carrying on a campaign. 
In September and October, after Salisbury had crossed 
the Loire, the Estates of France met at Chinon, and 
voted large sums of money for the war. They also 
begged the king to practice economy, to maintain jus- 
tice, and to make peace with the duke of Bui-gundy 
and the constable. To these requests the king gave 
vaguely favorable answers, and lived the same slothful, 

^ Ckron. Puc, chs, xxxii.-xxxiv. Between Sully and Blois there 
were but four bridges crossing the Loire, viz., at Jargeau, Orleans, 
Meung, and Beaugency. 



84 JOAN OF ARC. 

cowardly, spendthrift life as before, the creature of La 
Tremoille.^ 

On all sides of Orleans the country is very flat. In 
the Sologne, as the district south of the Loire is called, 
dikes are needed to protect the fields against the river in 
flood. In the Beauce, the district north of the Loire, 
where Orleans itself is built, the ground is but a few feet 
higher. The river is from three hundred to seven hun- 
dred yards wide, neither rapid nor slow, flowing among 
shifting sand-bars and low islands of changing shape. 
In 1428, the city was built close to the northern bank in 
a slightly irregular rectangle, about nine hundred yards 
along the river by six hundred yards in the other direc- 
tion. It was protected by a wall from twenty to thirty 
feet high, having a parapet and machicolations, with 
twenty-four towers. Outside the wall, except where it 
faced the river, was a ditch forty feet wide and twenty 
feet deep. 

The bridge which crossed the Loire was about three 
hundred and fifty yards long, including that part of it 
which rested on an island in mid-stream. On its south- 
ernmost pier was built a small fortress called the Tou- 
relles, connected with the shore of the Sologne by a 
drawbridge, which, in its turn, was covered by a strong 
earthwork or boulevard. ^ 

Though the walls of Orleans inclosed little more than 
a hundred acres of land, and though part of this small 
space was occupied by a large cathedral and several par- 
ish churches, yet twenty thousand people had their home 
in the closely packed houses that lined the narrow and 

1 Beaucourt, il. 170 ; Thomas, Etats gineraux sous Charles VII., 
28; lb., "Le midi et les E. G. sous Charles VII." (Annales du midi, 
January, 1892), 4 ; Loiaeleur, Compte des depenses, 63. 

2 See Jollois, Hist du siege d' Orleans, in 4to, containing maps and 
plans. 



THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS. 85 

crooked streets. ^ The expense of building and maintain- 
ing a wall was so great, the duty of watching it by day 
and night was so burdensome, that, during the Middle 
Ages, the cost of land inclosed in a walled town was very 
considerable. Modern cities are enormously more popu- 
lous than any which existed five hundred years ago; but 
it is likely that the overcrowding of the poor, now much 
talked about, was greater then than it is to-day. Just 
outside the walls were several populous faubourgs or 
suburbs. 

On October 5, Jargeau surrendered to the English. 
A week afterwards, Salisbury appeared before October, 
the Tourelles, having a considerable body of men ^*^^* 
and a well-appointed siege train. The garrison of Or- 
leans was commanded by Gaucourt, an elderly and expe- 
rienced soldier, but without marked ability. Under him 
served several of Charles's hard-fighting, freebooting 
captains, and a small body of professional troops ; beside 
these the citizens fought with desperate courage.^ 

With his odd-looking copper cannon, some of which 
threw stone balls of a hundred and fifty pounds' weight 
a distance of seven hundred yards, Salisbury battered at 
short range the Tourelles and its protecting boulevard, 
while he dropped some shot into the city itself. The 
garrison, also, was well supplied with artillery, and it 
returned Salisbury's fire, but without much effect, as 
there was nothing in particular to aim at. At the end of 
about a week of bombardment, varied by sortie, the Eng- 
lish made a furious assault upon the boulevard. This 
lasted four hours, and in it, says the chronicler of the 
siege, "were done many fair deeds of arms on the one 

* See Vergnaud-Romanesi, Des diverses enceintes, etc., 8 ; Vil- 
liaum^, Jeanne d'Arc, 29. 

^ P. iv. 94 et seq., Joum. Siege ; Jollois, Hist. Siege, 13 et secj. ; 
Parenteaa, Un canon de bronze du siege d' Orleans. 



86 JOAN OF ARC. 

side and the other." Even the women of Orleans brought 
across the bridge to the soldiers boiling oil, lime, and hot 
ashes, whatever would check the besiegers. For the time 
the English were repulsed, but the boulevard was mined, 
and the French position untenable; the boulevard was 
first abandoned, and then the Tourelles itself, having 
been battered to a ruin. Before withdrawing, however, 
the French broke down a span of the bridge between the 
Tourelles and the town, and built a barricade at their 
side of the opening. ^ 

On the afternoon of the same day, Salisbury went up 
into the Tourelles with some of his officers to look at the 
city across the river. As he stood by an embrasure, he 
was struck in the head by a cannon ball, and was wounded 
so severely that in three days he died. No one knew 
who fired the lucky shot, and so among the French his 
death "was esteemed by many persons to be the work of 
God. For he spared neither monasteries nor churches if 
once he could get into them, which naturally leads us to 
believe that his days were shortened by God's just ven- 
geance." ^ 

The death of Salisbury seems to have paralyzed the 
English. No one was commissioned to command in his 
place, and, after doing nothing for a fortnight, on Novem- 
ber 8 the main force of the English divided and with- 
drew to Meung and Jargeau. Five hundred men, under 
William Glasdale, were left in the Tourelles, after the 
fort had been repaired and its boulevard had been rebuilt 
stronger than ever. 

Meantime, the garrison had been strongly reinforced, 
and Gaucourt, who had been injured by a fall, was super- 

1 P. iv. 98, 99, Journ. Siege. 

3 P. iv. 100, 102, Journ. Siege; v. 287, Chron. de Vetahlisse- 
ment de la fete. His death was said to have been foretold by an 
astrologer. Chron. de Jean Raoulet, ia J. Chartier, ed. Vallet de V. 
iu. 197. 



THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS. P7 

seded in his command by John, Bastard of Orleans, after- 
wards created count of Dunois. He was the nat- Nov.-Dec 
ural haK-brother of the duke of Orleans, a brave ^'^^^' 
and skillful soldier of five-and-twenty, and accounted 
"the finest speaker in France." i 

His forces were greatly superior to those of Glasdale, 
but he did not attempt to retake the Tourelles ; perhaps 
because he knew that the main body of the English was 
distant only four or five hours' march. During more than 
three weeks, he and Glasdale idly faced each other, while 
the men of Orleans, left unmolested for the time on the 
north bank of the Loire, destroyed the city's suburbs, 
"the finest in the kingdom," razing fifteen churches, sev- 
eral monasteries, hundreds of dwelling-houses, everything 
that could shelter an Englishman approaching the walls. 
Fifteen thousand people, thus made homeless, crowded 
into Orleans, nearly doubling its population and threat- 
ening all with famine and disease. 

In the latter part of November, the question of the 
command of the English forces was settled by dividing it 
among three generals, — William Pole, earl of Suffolk; 
Thomas, Lord Scales; and John, Lord Talbot, "the 
great Alcides of the field." All these were men of note, 
but after Salisbury's death the English operations lacked 
vigor. About December 1, Talbot came to the Tourelles 
with a small reinforcement, and for nearly a month he 
and the Bastard kept up an artillery duel across the river, 
with very little damage to either combatant. One day 
an English shot fell into the middle of a table at which 
five people were dining, yet no one was hurt, — "a mira- 
cle supposed to be wrought by our Lord, at the prayer of 

1 For the Bastard, see Basin, Hist. Charles VII., i. 53 ; Ver- 
gnaud-Roman^si, Doc. ined. relatif au Bdtard d' Orleans. He con- 
tinued to sign himself " Bastard d'Orl^ans " long after being cre- 
ated count of Dunois. See Jarry, Testaments, etc., de Jean Bdtard 
T Orleans, 10. 



88 JOAN OP ARC. 

my Lord St. Aignan, patron of Orleans." On Christ- 
mas Day there was a truce from nine in the morning 
until three in the afternoon, " during which time Glasdale 
and other English lords begged the Bastard and the Lord 
of St. Severe, marshal of France, to cause their min- 
strels, trumpets, and clarions to play. Which was done 
accordingly, and the instruments played a long time, 
making fine music." Military operations in the Middle 
Ages were sometimes carried on in a leisurely man- 



ner 



Between Christmas and the New Year the main body 
of the English army arrived, advancing through 
February, the Beauce directly against the city. The Bas- 
tard sallied out to meet it, but was beaten back, 
and the English headquarters were established in a bas- 
tille or fortified camp, west of Orleans. It was about a 
gunshot from the walls, and was connected by a bridge 
with a camp on the south bank of the river, below the Tou- 
relles. From time to time the English built other forts 
west of the city and at about the same distance from its 
walls; but for several months they did not try to invest 
Orleans completely, nor did they make any vigorous at- 
tempt to carry the city by storm or to open a breach in the 
walls by bombardment or by mining. Not infrequently 
considerable supplies were smuggled into the city, but 
the English forces, almost always successful in the field, 
made the provisioning of Orleans an occupation very 
risky and uncertain. 

During all this time Charles VII. lived quietly at 
Chinon, and there received deputations from the citizens 
of Orleans urging him to succor their city. Prob- 
ably he always hoped that a French relieving army 
would turn up, but for some months he did little or no- 
thing more than hope. A government which waits to ask 
for supplies imtil its enemies have been six weeks in the 
1 P. iv. 104, 105, Joum. Siege. 



THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS. 89 

field is not likely to be very prompt in relieving besieged 
places. 1 

Through the early winter the siege dragged on, with 
cannonading and frequent sorties, with cutting off French 
supply trains and dare-devil exploits in bringing them in. 
The peaceful citizens were in constant terror. Sometimes 
the English disguised themselves as women, and crept 
close to the walls, capturing the poor vine-dressers as 
they ventured forth. ^ At dead of night the bells rang 
out or the cry of treason was raised, startling every one 
from sleep: it might be a false alarm, or the English 
might be already at the gates. There were distractions, 
of course. Two knights, chosen from the two parties, 
would break a lance in regular tournament; or the 
English and French pages would be turned loose in one 
of the sandy islands of the river, to fight it out with 
fists and stones, while grown-up people looked on. The 
humor of the siege was supplied in large part by one John 
of Lorraine, who used with much skill a culverin, the 
unwieldy prototype of the musket. Posted on the bridge, 
he did great execution, varying his work with pleasant 
jests at the English expense. "In order to mock them, 
sometimes he let himself fall to the ground, feigning to 
be dead or wounded, and thus was carried into the city. 
But incontinently he returned to the fight, and so bore 
himself that the English knew him for a live man to their 
great harm and discomfiture."^ 

Early in February a French army of relief was gath- 
ered, and its command was given to Charles of February, 
Bourbon, count of Clermont, a prince of the ^^^• 
blood royal, and a headstrong young man.* Instead of 
Liaking a direct attack upon the English camp, he de- 
cided first to intercept a large convoy of provisions and 

^ See P. iv. 103, note 3. ^ P. iv. 136, Journ. Siege. 

' P. iv. 105, Journ. Siege ; and see Journ. Siege, passim. 
* See Beaucourt, ii. 147. 



90 JOAN OF ARC. 

ammunition which was approaching- Orleans from Paris, 
under charge of the famous Sir John Fastolf.^ Fifteen 
hundred soldiers of the garrison sallied out one Friday to 
meet Clermont, who had given them rendezvous at K.ou- 
vray, twenty-five miles north of Orleans. Their march 
was made without interference from the besiegers. 

The rest of Friday, and all Saturday, the men of Or- 
leans waited for news. It came about midnight, when a 
disordered and terrified rabble poured into the city. All 
had gone wrong. The soldiers from Orleans came first 
to the rendezvous, and found themselves face to face with 
Fastolf . The count of Clermont had not come up, and 
yet had forbidden an attack upon the English in his ab- 
sence. Fastolf, a prudent and experienced soldier, saw 
at once that he was outnumbered, drew his men together, 
and covered their front with his heavy wagons. Still 
Clermont did not appear, and at last the impatient sol- 
diers of the garrison would wait no longer. They could 
not break through the wagons, but were thrown into dis- 
order and then cut to pieces by the English. Clermont 
came up just in time to see the disaster, but, though his 
force alone outnumbered Fastolf 's, he fled in confusion 
to Orleans. Several wagons, laden with salt herrings, 
made part of Fastolf 's convoy, and so the fight was known 
as the battle of the Herrings. ^ This was the battle which 
Baudricourt believed that Joan had announced to him 
on the very day it was fought. 

The citizens were now disheartened. The Bastard was 
wounded. Clermont's frightened soldiers could not 
be induced again to face the English, and, as they did 

1 This is, of course, the Sir John Fastolf of Shakespeare's Henry 
VI. and not the Sir John Falstaff of Henry IV., though the names 
are really the same. When Shakespeare changed the name of Old- 
castle to Falstaff in Henry IV. he probably borrowed the name of 
the unpopular Fastolf for the purpose. For Fastolf, see the Fasten 
Letters. 

* P. iv. 119 et seq., Journ. Siege. 



THE SIEGE OP ORLEANS. 91 

nothing but eat up the scanty store of provisions, the cit- 
izens begged that they might be withdrawn. With them 
went many captains, and even the bishop of the city, so 
that the woimded Bastard was left ahnost alone. Hope 
from Charles there was none, and the men of Orleans had 
recourse to a strange expedient. An embassy was sent 
to Philip of Burgundy, begging him to have mercy 
on his old enemy Duke Charles, and to take the city 
under his protection. Weeks must pass before the 
return of the embassy, and slowly the English closed 
their blockade. Now and then food and supplies were 
still introduced, sent, perhaps, by some friendly city, 
Tours or Albi or La Roehelle. Occasionally a messenger 
was dispatched to the king, quite uselessly, of course. 
His council spent much time in considering whether Dau- 
phiny or Spain would afford him the safer retreat after 
the fall of the city.^ "All the citizens and dwellers in 
Orleans," said a rich burgher, "were come into such 
straits by reason of the besiegers that they knew not to 
whom to turn for help, save God alone." ^ 

At about this time the story of Joan's journey was 
brought to Orleans, probably from Gien, where first she 
had been able to speak freely of her mission. Quite 
naturally the story was laughed at, but the condition of 
the city was too serious for much laughter, and the des- 
perate people were ready for a miracle, since nothing else 
would help them. The Bastard sent two of his officers 
to Chinon; they soon returned to Orleans, the citizens 
were called together, and the messengers told their tale.^ 
The people began to take courage at the wonderful story; 
even if the Maid brought them no miraculous help, at 
least she would be accompanied by a good body of sol- 
diers. 

For nearly two months longer they had to wait, while 

1 P. iv. 127, 309; Basin, Hist. Charles VII., i. 4. 

» P. iii. 24, Luillier. » P. iii. 3, Bastard. 



92 JOAN OF ARC. 

their condition grew worse. Moved, perhaps, by Joan's 
letter and a report of the proposed expedition, 
April, the English built new bastilles, to be connected 
^^^' by earthworks which should completely inclose 
the city. Before these were finished, however, the em- 
bassy returned from Burgundy. For years the duke 
had been guided alternately by his desire to avenge his 
father's murder upon Charles VII. and his fear lest 
the English should grow too strong. At this moment 
the latter motive prevailed, and he asked the duke of 
Bedford to raise the siege. This Bedford refused to do, 
probably for the reason given by one of his councilors, 
that it was not worth while to do the chewing for Bur- 
gundy to swallow. Philip thereupon ordered his sub- 
jects to withdraw quietly from the besieging army, and 
their defection weakened the English so much that the 
blockade could not be completed. ^ It was still possible, 
though at great risk, occasionally to bring into Orleans 
reinforcements and provisions. 

About April 25 Joan arrived at Blois, where had 
been gathered a considerable force of soldiers and sev- 
eral of the most noted French captains. There were 
Gaucourt, the old commander of Orleans; Rais^ and 
Boussac, the two marshals of France; Culant, the ad- 
miral; and La Hire, the cruel and witty Gascon free- 
booter already mentioned. "If God were to turn man- 
at-arms, He would be a cut-throat," was one of the 
sayings which fairly expressed his notion of warfare. 
With all their experience these generals seem to have 
been quite undecided what to do. Their forces, joined 
to those of the garrison, were at least as numerous as 
those of the English,^ but after the recent experience of 

* See P. iv. 146, Journ. Siege ; Moustrelet, Bk. II. ch. Iviii. 

2 This was the famous Gilles de Rais, by some supposed to be the 
original Bluebeard. 

3 See B. de Molandon, L'armee anglaise, 134 et seq. ; Jarry, 



THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS. 93 

Rouvi'ay they hesitated to face their enemies in the field. 
The main body of the English was encamped about Or- 
leans on the north side of the river, while comparatively 
small detachments occupied the Tourelles and other posts 
in the Sologne. The French captains, therefore, decided 
to march to Orleans by the south bank of the Loire. How 
they were to cross the river when they came opposite the 
city they seem not to have considered, but to have left 
to the inspiration of the moment. The result of the 
expedition made their plan appear singularly foolish, and 
they were not inclined to revive its memory; judged by 
their actions, however, this was what they intended to 
do.i 

Compte de Varmee anglaise, 62 ; Loiseleur, Compte des depenses, 136 
et seq. 

^ At the time of their departure from Blois, did the captains in- 
tend and expect to enter Orleans ? The Bastard (P. iii. 5, 6) says 
that when they arrived before Orleans they considered their army in- 
sufficient to force an entrance into the city, and he implies that this 
was the reason of the return to Blois. His meaning is not alto- 
gether clear, however, and it may be that he meant only to say that 
the captains considered their force insufficient to make an immediate 
attack on the English forces as Joan desired. (See P. iii. 78, Beau- 
croix.) The Journal du Siege (P. iv. 152) says that the captains all 
came to the conclusion that Joan should not enter Orleans until night- 
fall, and that Rais and Lor6, who, " by the king's commandment, had 
escorted her thus far, should return to Blois, where were stationed 
some French lords and soldiers." This passage implies, it seems to 
me, that the captains had not intended to enter Orleans and with it 
agree Cagny (P. iv. 5) ; Chron. Puc. (lb., 217, 218, 221) ; Monstre- 
let (lb., 363) ; Windecken (lb., 491) ; Aulon (P. iii. 210, 211), 
though it must be admitted that none of their statements are quite 
free from ambiguity. Among modern historians, Jollois (Hist. Siege, 
75) and apparently B. de Molandon (Premiere Exped., 38) suppose 
that the captains always intended to return to Blois ; Quicherat {Hist 
Siege, 32), perhaps, takes the contrary view. That Joan expected the 
army to enter, there cannot be the least doubt ; but, deceived as she 
was by everybody, this proves little. 

On the whole, it is probable that the captains had no definite inten- 
tion of entering Orleans. It is certain that in fact they did not enter 



94: JOAN OP ARC. 

Joan's theory of the art of war was simple; she be- 
lieved it to consist in attacking at once the principal body 
of the enemy. As the French intended to use her trust in 
the divine favor to stir up the enthusiasm of their soldiers, 
they did not tell her their plans, but, with the falsehood 
that usually accompanies vacillating weakness, they made 
her believe that Orleans was on the south bank of the 
Loire, and so that the relieving army was marching di- 
rectly to the city and against the English. ^ There was 
no reason why Joan should doubt them, and she did not. 
In one matter, however, she would have her own way; 
she was waging a holy war, and the men who fought with 
her should be holy. The soldiers must go to confession; 
and they did so, it is to be hoped to their spiritual ad- 
vantage. She was not to be satisfied with a bare cere- 
monial compliance; profane swearing was conspicuous 
among the lesser vices of La Hire, and she told him that 
he must give it up. This the fierce ruffian actually did, 
for men found it hard to refuse Joan, but it seems that 
he humorously begged her to leave him something to 
swear by. Joan's sense of humor was by no means 
wanting, and she allowed him to make use of his "mar- 
tin," or baton, for the purpose, perhaps because the name 
was like that of St. Martin, whom the Gascon probably 
used to swear by in his milder moods. ^ 

it. Nothing happened during the expedition which they could not 
easily have foreseen, and to suppose that they intended to ferry their 
men across the Loire, and then fight their way into the city, is to 
attribute to them an energy of which they never had given the least 
sign. Joan's influence was only beginning to be felt. 

^ Boucher de Molandon {Prem. Ex., 45) supposes that the decep- 
tion practiced upon Joan consisted in telling her, not that Orleans 
was situated on the south bank of the Loire, but that the main body 
of the English was encamped there, and could be attacked most di- 
rectly by a march through the Sologne. The common opinion agrees 
best with the testimony. 

'* P. iii. 206, Seguin ; see iii. 32, Compaing ; iv. 217, Chron. Puc. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE RELIEF OF ORLEANS. 

On the morning of Thursday, April 28,^ the army 
started on its march, three thousand strong, or April 28, 
thereabouts, with a long train of wagons and a ^'^^^' 
considerable drove of cattle. All the priests of Blois 
went in procession before the troops over the bridge 
across the Loire, chanting the " Veni Creator " and other 
anthems.^ Blois is distant from Orleans about thirty 
miles, and the army passed one night in the fields ; for 
the first time poor Joan had to sleep in armor, and was 
considerably bruised and chafed.^ The march must have 
been known to the English posts at Meimg and Beau- 
gency, but it was quite unhinder&d, and about Friday 
noon Joan came upon the heights of Olivet, two April 29, 
miles south of Orleans, from which the city and ^^^' 
the position of the besieging army could be plainly seen. 
She saw how she had been deceived. 

As the English made no motion except to abandon one 
or two outposts on the south bank of the Loire, the 
French army with its train descended from Olivet and 
advanced to the river, halting a little above the city 
and about a mile from the nearest corner of its walls.^ 
The current was strong, the wind blew stiffly down- 
stream, and it was impossible to bring up the heavy 

^ Joan arrived at Orleans on Friday, the 29th. Pasqnerel (iii. 105) 
says that she spent two nights on the march, but this is improbable. 
See P. iv. 54, J. Chartier, 

2 P. iii. 105, Pasquerel. » P. iii. 67, Coutes. 

< See B. de Molandon, Prem. Ex., 106. 



96 JOAN OF AKC. 

barges needed to transport men and provisions. Oppo- 
site the army, across the river, was the English bastille 
of St. Loup. The absurdity of the French position was 
evident. 

The march of the expedition had been known in Or- 
leans, and the watchmen stationed in the lofty church tow- 
ers could mark its every movement after the troops left 
Olivet. The Bastard took boat and was rowed up-stream 
and across the river to the place which the expedition 
had reached. As he landed he met Joan, who was very 
angry at the trick which had been plaj^ed her. 

"Are you the Bastard of Orleans? " she asked. (It is 
the Bastard himself who tells the story.) 

"I am," said he, "and I am glad that you have come." 

"Was it you who advised that I should come hither 
on this side of the river, and not march directly against 
Talbot and the English?" 

"Both I and others wiser than I gave that advice, be- 
lieving it to be the best and safest," answered the Bas- 
tard, tr5'ing to pacify her. 

"In God's name, the advice of our Lord God is safer 
and wiser than yours. You thought to deceive me, and 
you rather deceived yourselves, forasmuch as I bring you 
better help than ever came to any captain or city, the 
help of the King of Heaven. It is not given for love of 
me, but comes from God himself, who at the prayer of 
St. Louis and St. Charlemagne has had pity on the city 
of Orleans, and will not suffer that enemies shall have 
the body of the duke of Orleans and his city." 

"Immediately," continues the Bastard, "and in a 
moment, as it were, the wind, which had been contrary, 
and had greatly hindered the boats from ascending the 
river, changed and became favorable." ^ 

Taking advantage of the seeming miracle, the heavy 

^ P. iii, 5, Bastard ; and see v. 290, Chron. de Vetablissement de la 
fete. 



THE RELIEF OF ORLEANS. 97 

barges left Orleans, and were brought five miles farther 
up the river to a place where the supplies were embarked 
without danger of attack, the army having marched along 
the river-bank to the same place. During all these opera- 
tions the English kept quiet, perhaps because they saw 
that the relieving force could not possibly enter Orleans, 
and trusted to the discouragement which would be caused 
by its retreat. As the loaded barges went down-stream 
to the city, the garrison made a sortie against the Eng- 
lish bastille of St. Loup, to prevent its defenders from 
firing upon the flotilla, and thus secured the safe arrival 
of the supplies.^ 

By this time it was four or five o'clock, and the French 
prepared to go back to Blois. Something may have been 
said of a return to Orleans by way of the Beauce, but 
if the army should once regain Blois, such a return would 
be a thing desirable rather than likely. Though the 
Bastard seems to have approved the march through the 
Sologne, yet he wished to get out of the expedition some- 
thing more than a fresh supply of provisions. He had 
been moved by Joan's words and bearing; he had seen 
her work a miracle, as he believed ; and he begged her to 
enter Orleans with him, even if she came alone. Joan 
was much perplexed. She had come to Orleans to fight 
the English, and yet she was unwilling to lose the hold 
on her soldiers which she had gained since joining them ; 
they were good men, she said, penitent and confessed. 
Not until the marshals had solemnly assured her that 
they would recross the river at Blois, and would return 
at once through the Beauce to Orleans ; not until she had 
sent with them her confessor and her banner, did she 
enter the Bastard's boat, and with him cross the river to 

^ P. iv. 152, Jaurn. Siege. Contrary to the opinion of JoUois, Hist. 
Siege, 74, it seems clear that the provisions were brought into Orleans 
by water. See P. iii. 78, Beaucroix ; B. de Molandon, Prenu Ex., 
53 et seq. 



98 JOAN OF ARC. 

Checy, a village about six miles above Orleans. With 
her, also, went tbe faithful La Hire.^ 

Joan stayed at Checy ^ until dusk, so as to elude the 
English. At about eight o'clock she rode into the city; 
and the story of her entry, written by a citizen, shows to 
what excitement of hope the people had already been 
wrought. She was " in full armor, mounted on a white 
horse, with her pennon carried before her, which was white, 
also, and bore two angels, each holding a lily in his 
hand; on the pennon was painted an Annunciation. At 
her left side rode the Bastard of Orleans in armor, richly 
appointed, and behind her came many other noble and 
valiant lords and squires, captains and soldiers, with the 
burghers of Orleans who had gone out to escort her. At 
the gate there came to meet her the rest of the soldiers, 
with the men and women of Orleans, carrying many 
torches, and rejoicing as if they had seen God descend 
among them ; not without cause. For they had endured 
much weariness and labor and pain, and, what is worse, 
great fear lest they should never be succored, but should 
lose both life and goods. Now all felt greatly comforted 
and, as it were, already unbesieged, through the divine 
virtue of which they had heard in this simple maid; 
whom they regarded right lovingly, both men and women, 
and likewise the little children. There was a marvelous 
press to touch her, and to touch even the horse on which 
she rode, while a torch-bearer came so near her pennon 
that it was set afire. Thereupon she struck her horse 
with her spurs and put out the fire, turning the horse 
gently toward the pennon, just as if she had long been a 

1 P. iii. 6, Bastard ; lb., 78, Beaucroix ; 210, Aulon ; iv. 152, 
Journ. Siege. 

2 The Journ. Siege, P. iv. 151, says that Joan passed a night at 
Ch^cy, but plainly by a slip of the pen, the author having intended 
to write another name, or his copyist having been careless. The 
night referred to is that of the 28th, and Cl^ry is a reasonable 
emendation of the text. 



THE BELIEF OF OKLEANS. 99 

warrior, which the soldiers thought a very wonderful 
thing, and the burghers also. These accompanied her the 
whole length of the city with right good cheer, and with 
gi-eat honor they all escorted her to the house of James 
Boucher, treasurer of the duke of Orleans, where she was 
received with great joy."^ 

During her stay in Orleans Joan lived at the treas- 
urer's house. Her visit made such a lasting 
impression on the household that when Boucher May 3, 
died, thirteen years afterwards, full of honors, his ^' 
wife and children put upon his monument an inscription 
which recorded only his name and rank, and the fact that 
he had received "the Maid, by God's help the saviour of 
the city, into his house as a revered guest." ^ 

The press to see Joan was so great that Boucher's door 
was almost broken in, and she could hardly move through 
the crowded streets when she went abroad.^ On Tues- 
day, May 3, she went in solemn procession to pray for 
the deliverance of the city ; * she often visited the 
churches, and every day she heard mass. At the cathe- 
dral she was met by a priest. Doctor John of Mascon, 
"a very wise man." "My child, are you come to raise 
the siege?" he asked. 

"In God's name, yes." 

"My child, they are strong and well intrenched, and 
it will be a great feat to drive them out," said the wise 
man despondently. 

"There is nothing impossible to the power of God," 
Joan answered. "And throughout the city," the chroni- 
cler adds, "she gave honor to none else." It is recorded 
that the doctor made no doubt she was sent by God.^ 

^ P. iv. 152, Joum. Siege. 

* B. de Molandon, Jacques Boucher, in Mem. soc. arch. hist, de 
VOrleanais, t. xxii. 373. 

* P. iv. 155, Joum. Siege. * P. v. 259. 

* P. V. 291, Chron. de I' etablissement de la fete; see iii. 27, Commy. 



100 JOAN OF ARC. 

It was Friday night when Joan entered Orleans, and 
on Saturday there was an unimportant skirmish in 
which she took no part. That evening she sent to the 
English, demanding that the herald who had carried 
to them her summons from Blois should be returned to 
her. To this demand the Bastard added threats of 
retaliation. The herald was released, and by him the 
English generals warned Joan that if they caught her 
they would burn her for a witch or a strumpet. Her 
intense belief in her divine mission made it impossible 
for her to think that others would willfully disregard it, 
and so she went out to the barricade on the bridge and 
called across the narrow opening to Glasdale and the 
garrison of the Tourelles, promising them their lives if 
they would obey God and surrender at once. Quite 
naturally, the English answered with every manner of 
foul taunt and jest; doubtless they believed what they 
were saying. The next day Joan made a like attempt at 
another part of the fortifications with a like result; she 
also spent much time in reconnoitring the English posi- 
tion.-^ 

When the army reached Blois on its return from Or- 
leans, some of its leaders, in spite of their promise, pro- 
posed to disband it. Either hearing this, or suspecting 
it from his knowledge of the men concerned, on May 1 
the Bastard also went to Blois and told the marshals and 
the rest that if they did not march to the relief of Or- 
leans the city would certainly be lost. This argument 
or threat settled the matter. On the morning of Tues- 
day, May 3, the expedition set out again, this time by 
way of the Beauce, and, passing unhindered the Eng- 
May4, lish garrisons of Beaugency and Meung, it came 
1429. before Orleans on Wednesday morning. Its 
approach was known, and Joan rode out to meet it at the 

^ See P. iv. 154 et seq., Journ. Siege; lb., 220, ChronPuc, iii. 26, 
Esbahy. 



THE RELIEF OF ORLEANS. 101 

head of a considerable force of the garrison, intending 
to cover the passage of the expedition past the English 
forts. Strange to say, Talbot gave no sign of life. 
He also expected reinforcements, and it may be that he 
preferred to await them in the supposed security of his 
intrenchments, rather than try the chances of a pitched 
battle. Judged by the results, his strategy was unwise, 
as it undoubtedly encouraged the French soldiers.^ 

About five thousand regular troops were now gathered 
in Orleans, beside several thousand armed citizens. 
The besieging force, it is probable, hardly equaled that 
of the French regulars, but so great was the English 
prestige that the city v/as still in great peril. ^ More- 
over, the French resources were exhausted, and every 
man available was concentrated in Orleans; while the 
regent Bedford was gathering at Paris a considerable 
force which he proposed to send to Talbot under the 
command of Fastolf , the hero of the battle of the Her- 
rings. 

The French generals had no settled plan of operations, 
apparently, and, even after their experience of the week 
just passed, they took no pains to inform Joan of such 
plans as they had. After she had watched the entrance 
of the troops from Blois, she went back to Boucher's 
house. There she dined, had a short interview with the 
Bastard, and then lay down to get a little rest after the 
fatigTie of the morning. Her squire, himself tired out, 
was dozing, when he was waked by a sudden noise. The 
streets were full of people crying out that the English 
were slaughtering the French. Joan was awake already, 
calling for her horse and arms. The squire armed her 
as quickly as possible with the help of Madame Boucher 

^ P. iv. 155, 156, Joum. Siege; v. 291, Chron. de Vetablissement 
de la fete. 

^ See B. de Molandon, Z'armee anglaise, 141; Loiseleur, Compte des 
iepenses, 139. 



102 JOAN OF ARC. 

and her little daughter. Before he knew what she was 
doing, she had rushed into the street, had seized the ban- 
ner which her page handed her through the window, had 
mounted the first horse she found, and, riding toward 
the loudest noise, had galloped the length of the city to 
the Burgundy gate, on the east side of Orleans. She had 
thought that Fastolf was at hand with his reinforcements, 
but she found that the French were trying to storm the 
fort of St. Loup, already mentioned, situated on the north 
bank of the Loire, about a mile and a half above the 
town.i 

The assault had not been successful, and the English, 
issuing from one of their other forts, were marching to 
their comrades' relief. At the arrival of Joan, however, 
the French returned to the attack with a shout, and 
shortly carried the place, capturing a large supply of 
provisions, as well as many prisoners. Seeing that their 
help would come too late, the advancing English with- 
drew, while the French, after demolishing St. Loup, 
reentered Orleans, well pleased with the day's work. 
Crowds flocked to the churches to thank God, and the 
church bells were rung joyfully, so that "the English 
might hear ; who by this affair were greatly weakened in 
force, and in courage as well." The fall of St. Loup 
cleared the approaches on the east side of the town.^ 

St. Loup was taken on Wednesday, May 4. Thurs- 
day was the feast of the Ascension, a holy day on which 
it was not usual to fight. After some debate in the 
council of war, it was agreed to cross the river on Friday, 
and to attack the Tourelles and the other English works 
in the neighborhood. If these were taken, and the south 
bank of the Loire thus cleared of the English, provisions 
and munitions could be brought freely into Orleans by 
way of the Sologne, and the remaining English forts 

1 P. iii, 68, Coutes ; 212, Aulon. 
3 P. iv. 224, Chron. Puc. 



THE BELIEF OF ORLEANS. 103 

north and west of the city in the Beance would not 
threaten Orleans more than they were threatened by it.^ 

* The accounts given by the various authorities of the different 
military operations proposed, and of the councils of war held to con- 
sider them, do not agree in all respects. The Chron. Puc. (P. iv. 
224) asserts that Joan wished to attack the English on Thursday 
even though it was a holiday. The Chron. de V etablissement de la fete 
(v. 292) asserts precisely the contrary, and with it agrees the rather 
inaccurate eye-witness Pasquerel (iii. 107). 

Jean Chartier (P. iv. 57) gives an elaborate account of a council 
of war held on Thursday. His story has many improbabilities. Ac- 
cording to it, the council was held in Boucher's house, yet Joan was 
not admitted — a most unlikely thing to have happened, as there were 
many other houses in Orleans where the captains could have met 
without fear of interruption from Joan. The council is said to have 
decided to make a feint against the English positions in the Beauce, 
in order to draw to that side of the river the English detachments in 
the Sologne, and so to weaken the forces in the Tourelles and the 
Augustines, against which the real French attack was to be directed. 
It is to be observed, however, that the main body of the English 
was already in the Beauce, and that an attack upon it would not be 
likely to lead to any considerable weakening of the English detach- 
ments in the Sologne, at no time very strong. Moreover, the English 
could have crossed to the Sologne rather more quickly than could 
the French. After the council had reached its conclusion, Chartier 
tells us, Joan was admitted and was informed only of the proposed 
feint, as if it were to be the serious attack, this lie being told her 
from the quite unnecessary fear lest she should betray the council's 
real plan to the English. On hearing the news, Joan became at once 
vexed, according to Chartier, though it is hard to know why, since an 
attack upon the main body of the English was what she always de- 
sired. As soon as her vexation was manifest, the whole plan was 
revealed to her, and she assented to it at once. " However," as Char- 
tier says quite correctly, " of this plan no part was ever carried out." 

The witness Simon Charles, on the other hand (iii. 116), says 
that the captains decided to make no attack on Friday, but that Joan 
forced open the city's gate, in spite of the opposition of Gaucourt, 
who was in command at that point. The three authorities first 
named, however, are only chroniclers, while Charles speaks expressly 
from hearsay. I think there is some truth in all the stories, but that 
the narrators have confused both dates and facts. 

Some kind of a council of war must have been held on Thursday, 



104 JOAN OF ARC. 

On Friday morning, accordingly, both troops and citi* 
jj;ay 6, zens passed through the Burgundy gate and were 
1429. ferried to an island in the river lying near its 
southern bank. From this place they crossed to the 
Sologne over an improvised bridge of boats. One small 
post 1 had been abandoned by the English, but the 
Tourelles confronted them, protected by its boulevard and 
the fortified convent of the Augustines. The English 
advanced in force, and the over-hasty French fell back 
toward the island, their rear covered by Gaucourt, the 
old governor of the city. Joan now came up with La 

and there seems no reason to doubt the statement of the Journ. Siege 
(iv. 158), that Joan was present at it, together with some of the 
burghers of Orleans. A plan of operations was agreed upon and was 
carried out until the English took the offensive, after the capture 
by the French of the bastille of St. John the White. According to 
Aulon, a military eye-witness, the French then determined to retreat 
without doing anything further. See iii. 214. Gaucourt seems to 
have been in command of the troops, and his controversy with Joan 
probably took place at that time. On Friday evening, after the cap- 
ture of the Augustines, the French captains seem to have been in- 
clined to rest content with what they had accomplished, and at this 
time another council of war was held, to which Joan probably was 
not invited. According to Pasquerel, an eye-witness, though not a 
very accurate one, its conclusions were announced to her on Friday 
evening after supper, by a valiant and notable soldier, whose name 
Pasquerel could not remember. See iii. 108. Joan thereupon de- 
clared that she would not consent to postpone offensive operations, 
and she seems to have gained a somewhat reluctant consent from the 
captains to renew the fight on Saturday. Apparently there were 
difficulties and misunderstandings even on Saturday morning. Coutes, 
Joan's page, says that the keepers of the Burgundy gate hesitated to 
let her pass through it to the river. iii. 70. If the controversy 
with Gaucourt, described by Simon Charles, really took place at one 
of the city's gates, it must have been on Saturday morning, and not 
on Friday. 

For further evidence of disagreement between Joan and the cap- 
tains, see iii. 32, Farciaulx; 79, Beaucroix ; 215, Aulon; iv. 7, Cagnyj 
227, Chron. Puc; v. 293, Chron. de V etablissement de la fete. 

1 St. John the White. 



TKE RELIEF OF ORLEANS. 105 

Hire. Gaucourt forbade them to advance, but they would 
not be checked, and together they charged upon the Eng- 
lish, lance in hand. All were ashamed to remain behind ; 
the English gave way, and the tide of battle flowed back 
to the walls of the Augustines. Here the English stood 
their ground and fought bravely, but the enthusiasm of 
attack was with the French. Knights who had been ene^ 
mies vied with each other in feats of valor. A tall Eng- 
lishman who stoutly defended the gate was at last shot 
down by the facetious gunner, John of Lorraine, and 
the French rushed in unchecked, while the English re- 
treated to the boulevard of the Tourelles, an earthwork 
connected by a drawbridge with the pier upon which the 
Tourelles itself was built. For fear that the French should 
fall into disorder while plundering the English quarters, 
Joan caused the buildings of the Augustines to be set on 
fire.^ 

That very afternoon an attack was made upon the 
boulevard, but it failed. The men of Orleans saw plainly 
that the real struggle would come on the next day, and 
all through the night they labored to bring bread and 
wine to the soldiers who slept on the field. ^ Together 
with most of the captains, Joan returned to Orleans.^ 
The citizens had now come to trust her implicitly, and 
they were afraid lest the captains should rest content 
with what had been done already. Their fears were well 
founded. Soon after supper one of the French leaders 
came to the treasurer's house to tell Joan that a council 
of war had been held, in which the captains had decided 
that their forces were much inferior to the English, and 

1 P. iv. 227, Chron. Puc. ; 365, Monstrelet. 

^ Vergnaud-Romandsi, Me'moire surles depenses faites par les Orleans 
ais, 10. 

^ lu spite of the testimony of Aulon, P. iii. 215, and the account 
of Jean Chartier, iv. 60. See Pasqiierel, iii. 108, and 124, Colette 
Milet. Their testimony is very circumstantial. See, also, iv. 227, 
Chron. Puc. j 365, Monstrelet. 



106 JOAN OF ARC. 

that God had greatly favored them in what they had 
already accomplished. " Considering that the city is now 
fully supplied with food," he went on, "we can well 
afford to guard the town closely, and to wait for rein- 
forcements from the king. It does not seem best to the 
council that we should fight to-morrow." 

"You have been in your council," Joan replied, "and 
I have been in mine, and you may believe that the coun- 
sel of my Lord shall hold and shall be accomplished, 
while councils of your sort shall come to naught. Get 
up early to-morrow morning, fight your best, and you 
shall do more than you did to-day."^ 

The captains were staggered by her assurance. Over 
some of them she had gained great influence, and they 
had not been unanimous in putting off the final struggle 
with the English. Moreover, the burghers were furious 
at the thought of delay. They remonstrated with the 
generals, and, as if their exhortations were needed, begged 
Joan to lead the attack. ^ For seven weary months the 
English had lain at their gates, while they had been fed 
with broken promises by the king and his councilors. 
To them it seemed madness not to take advantage of the 
succor sent them by Heaven. Assailed on every side, 
the council of war at last recalled its decision. 

During the operations of Friday, the main body of the 
English, encamped to the west of Orleans, had been 
strangely quiet. On Friday night Talbot tried to send a 
small body of men across the river, apparently without 
much success, for the boats were upset, and some of the 
men were drowned, as the French found out years after- 
ward by fishing up their armor from the river-bed.^ 

1 P. iii. 108, Pasquerel. 

2 See P. V. 293, Chron. de V etablissement de la fete. It is doubtful 
if this account is by an eye-witness, but see Boucher de Molaudoa's 
edition of the chronicle. 

2 P. T. 293, Chron. de V etablissement de la fete. 



THE RELIEF OP ORLEANS. 107 

Probably Talbot believed that the Tourelles could hold 
out against any attack, but there was another cause for 
his indecision. By this time the English knew quite as 
well as did the French that some one had come to Orleans 
asserting a power to raise the siege. Angel or v/itch, they 
stood in awe of her, for they could see that her coming 
had made the French soldiers new men. 

On Saturday morning Joan rose early. Her success 
of the day before, and the exhilaration of actual May 7, 
encounter with the English after so many weeks ^^"^• 
of waiting, gave her good spirits. They brought her a 
shad for breakfast, but she was already on horseback. 
"Keep it for to-night," she said, "and I will bring back 
a ' goddam ' with me to eat his share ; and I shall come 
back across the bridge." ^ 

When she and the captains reached the field, the as- 
sault began on the boulevard which covered the Tourelles. 
Its captains understood that they must make good their 
defense without help from Talbot; this they were ready 
to do, boasting that they could hold out a fortnight 
against the power of France and England combined. 
The walls of the boulevard were high and strong, the 
garrison was as large as the place would allow, and amply 
provided with cannon and small arms.^ The French 
planted their scaling-ladders, and climbed them so bravely 
that, "to judge by their gallant bearing, they thought 
themselves immortal;"^ the English hurled them down 
into the ditch with axes, clubs, and gunshot, sometimes 
grappling with them hand to hand. At the other side of 
the Tourelles the French kept up a constant fire across 
the opening in the bridge. In spite of their gallantry, 
by midday the assailants had accomplished nothing. 

1 P. iii. 124, Colette Milet. 

2 See iv. 365, Monstrelet ; Rel. ined.,27; iii. 94, Alengon ; iv. 8^ 
Cagny ; 159, Journ. Siege ; 493, Wiudecken ; v. 134. 

* P. iv. 160, Journ. Siege. 



108 JOAN OF ARC. 

Early in the afternoon Joan, who had been in the thick 
of the fight, encouraging the soldiers, seized a ladder and 
set it against the wall of the boulevard. As she was 
about to climb up, an arrow struck her between the neck 
and the shoulder. The wound was several inches deep, 
and she was carried at once to the rear, where her armor 
was taken off. Though she had expected to be hurt,^ yet 
she cried out for a moment at the physical pain, as any 
brave girl might do. When, however, those who crowded 
about her tried to put charms on the wound, she would 
not allow them to do so, saying that the thing was a sin. 
The wound was dressed with olive oil; she was armed 
again, and returned to the field. ^ 

The Bastard and the other captains were discouraged. 
From early morning until late in the day they had been 
fighting, and had not won a foot of ground. The Bas- 
tard himself, though brave and un wounded, "had had 
enough of it," as he afterwards said, and wished the army 
to retire into the city. The trumpets sounded retreat. 
"And then the said Maid came to me," so the Bastard 
himself testified, "and begged me to wait yet a little 
longer. She thereupon mounted her horse, and withdrew 
alone into a vineyard at some distance from the crowd, 
in which vineyard she remained in prayer for about half 
a quarter of an hour; then, having come back from that 
place, at once she took her pennon in her hands, and 
posted herself at the edge of the ditch. "^ 

The battle began again. Beside the attack on the 
boulevard, some of the garrison and citizens threw beams 

^ P. i. 79, J.'s test. ; iv. 426, There can hardly be a doubt that 
Joan announced beforehand that she should be wounded, as there 
exists an abstract of a letter which mentions the prediction, and was 
•written April 22. Joan's expectation of injury made not the least 
difference in her actions. 

2 P. i. 79, J.'s test. ; iii. 8, Bastard ; 70, Coutes ; 109, Pasquerel ; 
hr. 61, J. Chartier ; 160, Journ. Siege; 228, Chron. Puc. 

* P. iii. 8. 



THE RELIEF OF OELEAXS. 109 

and gutters from pier to pier across the opening which 
had been made in the bridge on the town-ward side of 
the Tourelles, until they reached the Tourelles itself. 
"It was a hard thing," says a chronicler of Orleans, "to 
make these temporary bridges, inasmuch as the English 
had built fortifications strong and well placed; but God 
was in all the work, and so, when any man began to 
labor he became a skillful workman, as if he had been 
brought up to the trade. The citizens loaded a great 
skiff with firewood and bones, with old leather and sul- 
phur, and the most stinking things that could be found. 
This boat was brought between the Tourelles and the 
boulevard, and there was set afire, which much distressed 
the English; and besides, though they had the best can- 
non in the world, yet a man could have thrown a shot as 
hard as their cannons did, which was a fine miracle,"^ 

The fortune of the fight turned. The English powder 
had given out, and the English soldiers, struggling 
against great odds, and exhausted by the length and 
ferocity of the battle, were dismayed by the reappearance 
of Joan, who, as they thought, had been killed or dis- 
abled. As the French fought about her, close to the 
ditch, some of them saw a white cloud float above her 
pennon, while to others the pennon seemed to change its 
direction and to reach out toward the wall. At that 
moment she cried to them, "Into the fort, children; in 
God's name they are ours." "And never," so says the 
same chronicler, "was seen flock of birds lighting on a 
hedge as thick as were the French climbing up the said 
boulevard. "2 

Though the boulevard was lost, the English kept their 
discipline and fell back across the drawbridge into the 

^ P. V. 293, Chron. de V etahliasement de la fete. 

^ P. V. 294, Chron. de V etahlissement de la fete. According to a 
popular story, one of the garrison said that it seemed to him as if the 
whole world was gathered to the attack. P. iv. 163. 



110 JOAN OF ARC. 

Tourelles, William Glasdale, tlieir captain, covering their 
rear. The fire, however, had spread from the fire-boat 
to the drawbridge, and this broke under the great weight, 
carrying down Glasdale and many of his soldiers, who 
were drowned in their heavy armor. Further resistance 
was out of the question, and the remnant of the English 
force which had reached the Tourelles in safety surren- 
dered at once.^ More planks were hastily thrown across 
the gaps in the bridge on both sides of the Tourelles, and 
Joan rode back into the city through the fort and across 
the bridge, as she had foretold that very morning. "All 
the bells of the city began to ring out, and the people to 
praise and thank the Lord."^ 

The capture of the Tourelles made untenable the posi- 
tion of Talbot and his troops in the forts west of Orleans. 
The English forces which, even before the attack on St. 
Loup, were on the whole inferior to the French, had suf- 
fered much more severely in the battles of Wednesday, 
Friday, and Saturday, though the French losses had been 
considerable. Instead of a besieger, Talbot might at any 
moment find himself besieged. The French, moreover, 
lately discouraged, were now ready to dare anything, 
while the English soldiers were more than half inclined 
to believe that supernatural forces, either of heaven or 
hell, were arrayed against them. Without haste and in 
good order Talbot prepared to retreat. 

On Sunday morning Joan, still weak from her wound, 
May 8, P^^ on a coat of armor lighter than that she 
^^^^- had worn, and, with the Bastard and the rest, 
marched out of the west gate against the English forts. 
Before them they saw the English army, drawn up by 
Talbot in order of battle. The confident French soldiers 

^ In addition to the authorities already cited, see P. iii. 25, Luil- 
lier ; 80, Beaueroix ; 216, Anion. Glasdale's body was embalmed 
and taken to Paris, where it lay in the church of St. Mary. It was 
buried in England. P. iv. 463, Journ. Bourg. 

2 F XT, 62, J. Chartier. 



THE RELIEF OF ORLEANS. Ill 

were eager to attack, but Joan restrained them. "If 
tliey attack you," she said, "fight bravely like men, and 
you will get the better of them, but do not begin the 
battle." She then sent for a priest and bade him cele- 
brate mass in front of the army. When one mass was 
over, she bade him celebrate another, "both of which she 
and all the soldiers heard with great devotion." "Now 
look," she said, "and see if their faces are set toward 
us." They told her that, on the contrary, the English 
had turned their backs, and were retreating toward 
Meung. "In God's name, they are gone," said she. 
"Let them escape, and let us go and praise God, and 
follow them no farther, since this is Sunday." "Where- 
upon," says a chronicler, "the Maid with the other lords 
and soldiers returned to Orleans with great joy, to the 
great triumph of all the clergy and people, who with one 
accord returned to our Lord humble thanks and praises 
well deserved for the victory he had given them over the 
English, the ancient enemies of this realm." ^ 

Another chronicler of Orleans, writing about thirty 
years after the siege, gives an account of the foundation 
of the festival of the eighth of May. "My lord the 
bishop of Orleans, and my lord of Dunois [the Bastard], 
brother of my lord the duke of Orleans, with the duke's 
advice, as well as the burghers and inhabitants of the said 
Orleans, ordered that on the eighth of May there should 
be a procession of people carrying candles, which proces- 
sion should march as far as the Augustines, and, wherever 
the fight had raged, there a halt should be made and a suit- 
able service should be had in each place with prayer. We 
cannot give too much praise to God and the Saints, since 
all that was done was done by God's grace, and so, with 
great devotion, we ought to take part in the said proces- 

^ P. iii. 9, Bastard ; 29, Champeaux ; 80, Beaucroix ; 110, Pas- 
querel ; 217, Aulon ; iv. 9, Cag^y ; 62, J. Chartier ; 163, Journ. 
Siege; 366, Monstrelet. 



112 JOAN OF ARC. 

sion. Even tlie men of Bourges and of certain other cities 
celebrate the day, because, if Orleans had fallen into the 
hands of the English, the rest of the kingdom would have 
taken great harm. Always remembering, therefore, the 
great mercy which God has shown to the said city of 
Orleans, we ought always to maintain and never to aban- 
don this holy procession, lest we fall into ingratitude, 
whereby much evil may come upon us. Every one is 
obliged to join the said procession, carrying a lighted 
candle in his hand. It passes round about the town in 
front of the church of our Lady of Saint Paul, at which 
place they sing praises to our Lady ; and it goes thence 
to the cathedral, where the sermon is preached, and there- 
after a mass is sung. There are also vigils at Saint 
Aignan and, on the morrow, a mass for the dead. All 
men, therefore, should be bidden to praise God and to 
thank Him ; for at the present time there are youths who 
can hardly believe that the thing came about in this wise ; 
you, however, should believe that this is a true thing, 
and is verily the great grace of God." ^ 

The fears of the pious chronicler have not been real- 
ized. Three hundred years ago the ancient walls of 
Orleans were outgrown, and even the walls which took 
their place have lately been leveled into modern boule- 
vards; the cathedral fell a prey to the Huguenots, and 
has since been rebuilt; in the middle of the last century 
the old bridge was pulled down, and, by a change in the 
river's course, the southern end of it, where the Tou- 
relles stood, has now become dry land ; but almost with- 
out interruption the procession has gone on for more than 
four hundred and fifty years. The priests still march 
through the streets of the city, halt in the busy squaro 
across the river where the boulevard of the Tourelles was 
stormed, and return to the cathedral for the Te Deuui 
and for a sermon on Joan of Arc. 

^ P. V. 296, Chron. de Vetdblissement de la fete. 



THE RELIEF OF ORLEANS. 113 

In 1456, rather more than twenty -five years after the 
siege, some thirty men and women of Orleans, all eye- 
witnesses, were examined concerning Joan's conduct dur- 
ing her stay in the city. "And in this they all agreed," 
so runs the minute of their depositions, "that they had 
never perceived by any means whatever that the said 
Joan set to the glory of her own valor the deeds that she 
had done, but rather ascribed everything to God, and, as 
far as she was able, prevented the people from honoring 
her or giving her the glory ; for she preferred to be alone 
and solitary rather than to be in men's company, unless 
that was necessary for the purpose of war."^ "Never 
was seen the like of the deeds that you do," so the people 
told her; "in no book can such wonders be read." Joan 
answered, "My Lord has a book in which no clerk ever 
read, were he never so clerkly." ^ 

1 P. iii. 31. a P. iii. 110, Pasquerel. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. — JARGEAU. 

Joan's victory before Orleans had a great effect.* 
May 8- The French regained the natural courage which 
22, 1429. ii^QiY many defeats and misfortunes had shaken, 
and the English, both leaders and soldiers, lost much of 
the boastful confidence which their repeated successes had 
almost justified. The effect was not confined to the ar- 
mies on the Loire. Once a day, or oftener, hard -riding 
messengers brought the news from Orleans to Chinon, 
and the king sent it on to all parts of France, calling the 
attention of his subjects to his own "continual diligence 
in giving all possible aid to the city."^ Talbot at once 
informed Bedford of his retreat, and the regent, who 
knew well the uncertain loyalty of his French subjects, 
recognized the danger caused by such a loss of prestige,^ 

Talbot and Bedford and the English captains and sol- 
diers, however, were neither disheartened nor demoral- 
ized, and they had no intention of giving up the strong 
places about Orleans which they had taken in the summer 
and autumn of 1428. The main body of the English 
army had not yet met Joan in battle, and its retreat on 
Sunday morning had been made in good order, with small 

^ A Burgundian chronicler says that "throughout France fools 
and simple folks called her the Angelic." Livre des Trahisons, in 
Chron. Belg. ined., ii. 197. 

2 P. V. 100 ; see Rel. ined., 28. 

8 See P. iv. 233, Chron. Puc. ; 369, Monstrelet ; 451, Fauquem- 
berque ; Stevenson, Wars Eng., ii. 95 ; Leffevre Pontalis, Panique an- 
glaise en mai, 1429. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. 115 

loss, except of siege artillery.^ Talbot and the larger 
part of liis troops took up their position at Meung and 
Beaugency, below Orleans, while Suffolk with five or six 
hundred soldiers was sent up the river to Jargeau. 
Smaller detachments garrisoned the towns between Or- 
leans and Paris. ^ 

This, then, was. the state of affairs. At Orleans, the 
northernmost point of the semicircular sweep of the 
Loire, the French had a strong fortress on the north 
bank of the river, with a fortified tete du pont on the 
south bank. Between Gien, thirty miles up-stream, and 
Blois, almost as far below, this was the only place at 
which they could cross the river. Some ten miles above 
Orleans, Suffolk held Jargeau for the English with the 
only bridge between Orleans and Gien.^ Ten miles be- 
low Orleans, Talbot's troops held Meung with its forti- 
fied bridge ; at Beaugency, five miles below Meung, was 
still another, covered by the strong citadel of the place. 
The next bridge was at Blois. Orleans was thus a 
French outpost on the only road by which the French 
could march north into a country full of English for- 
tresses, or could retreat from that country south across 
the Loire. The English, on the other hand, in marching 
south, could cross the Loire above or below Orleans, 
ravage at will the country held by the French, cut off 
any force approaching or leaving the city, and then re- 
cross the river at any one of three places they might 
choose.^ Repulsed for the time, they had no notion of 
giving up these advantages, and Bedford hastened to 
bring to Paris from all quarters another army which 

1 See P. iv. 233, Chron. Puc. 

2 See P. iv. 10, 44, 170, 233, 368. 

^ It is just possible that there was a bridge at Sully, which place 
was soon given up to the French. See Viollet le Due, Diet. Arch., 
iii. 161 ; Godefroy, Hist. Charles VII., 376. 

* Jargeau, Meuug, Beaugency. 



116 JOAN OF ARC. 

should reinforce Talbot and enable that general to re- 
sume the offensive.^ 

Notwithstanding the success of the French arms, and 
the high spirit of the troops and of the citizens of Or- 
leans, the inferior discipline and organization of the 
French army kept it from following Talbot in his retreat. 
There was lack of provisions and money, the troops were 
dispersing, and Joan had to go back to the king for help, 
as well as in order to urge his setting out for consecra- 
tion at Rheims. On Monday or Tuesday, accordingly, 
she left Orleans, with Rais and other captains, and rode 
to Blois, where she passed a day or two. The Bastard 
seems to have remained at Orleans with a small force. ^ 

Since his return from Poitiers with Joan, Charles 
VII. had kept himself safe at Chinon, but immediately 
after the relief of Orleans he came to Tours, and there 
met Joan on Wednesday or Thursday.^ She had shown 
the sign which she had promised, and had accomplished 
the first part of her mission. To her there seemed no 
reason for further hesitation in going forward with the 
second part of the same mission, the march to Rheims 
and the consecration of the Dauphin.* If it was desirable 
to retake the towns which the English still held in the 
valley of the Loire, she was willing to go against them 
provided they were attacked at once, and provided that 
their capture was meant only as the first step in the expe- 
dition to Rheims.^ 

The plans of the royal council, for the poor king had 
none of his own, were not so simple. From this time 
forward the division of parties at court grew more marked, 

1 See p. iv. 233, Chron. Puc. ; 368, Monstrelet. 

2 P. iii. 80, Beaucroix ; iv. 165, 167, Journ, Siege; 234, Chron. Puc. 
^ Charles is said to have greeted her warmly. Rev. Hist. t. xix. 61. 
** Charles had talked about going to Rheims as early as 1423. 

Beaucourt, ii. 59. 

6 P. iv. 497, Windecken ; v. 101, 119, 258; Les la Tremoille, 188. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. 117 

week by week, and almost day by day. La Tremoille, 
the master of tlie wretched Charles, had allowed the ex- 
pedition to Orleans. He was not unwilling that the city 
should be relieved, if this could be done without danger 
to his own power; but the completeness of Joan's victory 
had aroused his opponents, and the awakening of French 
patriotism threatened his overthrow. He represented no 
considerable class in the community, and had no support 
from any of the great forces of mediaeval France. The 
cities suffered from the excesses allowed by his misrule ; 
the clerical officers, the bureaucracy, dreaded his violence 
and were aghast at his rapacity and at the financial dis- 
tress which it caused; the great nobles hated him be- 
cause he kept them out of power. Himself a nobleman 
of some importance, he was the head of a small party of 
political and military adventurers, which was likely to 
be overthrown at the appearance of any strong man, or 
by any great outburst of popular feeling. Only so long 
as things went on as before, in aimless negotiation with 
the duke of Burgundy, in petty military expeditions, in 
universal jealousy, and in private war between the nom- 
inal supporters of Charles, could La Tremoille govern 
France. A real victory, a successful campaign, brought 
him into great danger. 

Joan's strongest support had come from Yolande of 
Anjou and from the duke of Alen^on, both of whom 
were friendly to La Tremoille's enemies. Though they 
had not quarreled openly with the favorite, they both 
recognized that the hearty support of all loyal Frenchmen 
was needed to defeat the English, and, besides, they were 
themselves closely allied by blood or marriage with the 
great nobles whom La Tremoille tried to keep away from 
court. There were still stronger reasons for the favor- 
ite's anxiety. His greatest rival was his former patron, 
the constable, Arthur of Brittany, count of Richemont. 
For many months he had spent the royal treasure in 



118 JOAN OF ARC. 

private war with Ricliemont, and by every means had 
sought to keep him from Charles's presence. Both Riche- 
mont and the duke of Brittany were uncles of Alen^on, 
brothers of the dowager duchess who had received Joan 
so kindly at St. Florent. The constable began to gather 
an army, and Duke John, a pious prince, sent his con- 
fessor to see Joan and to make inquiries about her.^ La 
Tremoille became very uneasy. 

A fortnight or so was spent in debate at Tours; then 
the court moved to Loches, some thirty miles away, a 
May 22- grim fortress, better suited to Charles's humor 
31, 1429. than a large city.^ As Joan rode into the place 
the people crowded about her horse and tried to kiss her 
hands and feet. A churchman, the abbot who had exam- 
ined her at Poitiers, blamed her for allowing these mani- 
festations, and told her to keep herself from like things 
because she was making the people idolaters. "In truth," 
she answered, "I should not know how to guard myself 
from these things, unless God guarded me."^ 

By this time she must have discovered that churchmen 
were not her only enemies. As yet she did not realize 
the state of parties in the royal council, but she knew 
that time was being wasted, and that even the sign she 
had just given at Orleans had not removed all doubts. 
Things were not going well in the field. The Bastard 
had led a considerable force against Jargeau without 
waiting for Joan, and, after some skirmishing, had found 
it wise to retreat, as the waters of the Loire were high 
and filled the ditches about the town.* Still the coun- 
cil hesitated, and discussed many plans. After about a 
week's stay in Loches the king was closeted one day with 
his confessor and two other members of his council, 

^ P. iv. 316, Gruel ; Lobineau, Hist, Bretagne, i. 580. 
^ P. iv. 497, Windecken. Charles was at Loches, May 22. Beau< 
court, iii. 516. 

3 P. iii 84, Barbin. * P. iv. 167, Journ. Siege. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. 119 

Robert le Ma^on and Christopher of Harcourt. Accom- 
panied by the Bastard, who was come to Loches, Joan 
knocked at the door of the king's apartments. As soon 
as she came into the room, she knelt before Charles, and 
said to him, clasj)ing his knees: "Noble Dauphin, do not 
hold so many and so lengthy councils, but come at once 
to Kheims and take the crown which is yours." Har- 
court asked her if she spoke by the advice of her coun- 
cil. Joan told him that she did, and that she had been 
much urged to speak. "Will you not tell us here, in 
the king's presence," said Harcourt, "the manner of your 
council, when it speaks to you?" Joan blushed, for she 
never liked to gratify idle curiosity about things sacred 
to her, but she saw that she must speak. " I understand 
well enough what you want to know," she answered, 
"and I will tell you freely." She then said that when 
she was grieved in any way, because men would not be- 
lieve the things she told them in God's behalf, she went 
into some place apart and there prayed to God, bewail- 
ing because those to whom she spoke would not readily 
believe her. When her prayer was said, she used to hear 
a voice saying to her, "Child of God, go, go, I will 
be with thee, go; "^ and as she heard this voice she was 
very glad, wishing always to be in such condition as that. 
"What is more remarkable," adds the Bastard, who teUs 
the story, " while she was repeating the words spoken by 
her voices, she rejoiced marvelously, raising her eyes to 
heaven." 2 

Whether the decision was influenced by Joan's appeal 
cannot be known certamly. By some means or other the 
party of action triumphed, and early in June the duke 
of AlenQon was given command of the army, with orders 
to lead it against Jargeau and the other fortresses on the 
Loire which were in English hands. It was supposed 

^ " Fille Dd, va, va, va. Je serai k ton aide; va." 
2 P. iii. 11, 12. 



120 JOAN OF ARC. 

that Charles himself might take some part in the cam* 
paign, but he did nothing of the sort.^ 

The rendezvous was at Selles, about fifteen miles from 
Loches and about fifty miles south of Orleans. Thither 
June 1-8 Joan went soon after June 1, and there were 
1429. rapidly gathered men from almost all parts of 

France, aroused by the news of her exploits before Or- 
leans, and beginning again to hope for their country. 
Among them were two brothers, one still a boy, whose 
father had been killed at Agincourt. They had been 
brought up by their mother, who had defended their 
castles against the English, and by their grandmother, 
in her youth the wife of the great constable, Bertrand 
Duguesclin. The incoherent, boyish letter, written to the 
women at home by these two young soldiers, Guy and 
Andrew of Laval,^ is the most picturesque account we 
have of the state of affairs in France. 

My revered Ladies and Mothers, — After I wrote 
June 8, yon on Friday last from St. Catherine of Fier- 
1429. bois, I reached Loches on Saturday, and went to 

see my lord dauphin ^ in the castle, after vespers in the 
collegiate church. He is a very fair and gracious lord, 
very well made and active, and ought to be about seven 
years old. Sunday I came to St. Aignan, where the king 
was, and I sent for my lord of Treves * to come to my 
quarters ; and my uncle went up with him to the castle 
to tell the king I was come, and to find out when he 
would be pleased to have me wait on him. I got the 
answer that I should go as soon as I wished, and he 

1 P. V. 110. 

2 For the brothers, see Lobineau, Hist. Bretagne, i. 539, 544, 553, 
562. Andrew was born about 1412. Guy was probably but a year 
or two older. See, also, Chron. Puc, 216, 254; Godefroy, Hist. Charles 
VII., 5, 6, 217. 

8 Afterwards Louis XI. 

* Gaucourt, the old commander of the garrison of Orleans. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. 121 

greeted me kindly and said many pleasant things to 
me. 

On Monday I left the king to go to Selles, four 
leagues from St. Aignau, and the king sent for the Maid, 
who was then at Selles. Some people said that this was 
done for my sake, so that I could see her; at any rate 
she was very pleasant to my brother and me, being fully 
armed, except for her head, and holding her lance in her 
hand. Afterwards, when we had dismounted at Selles, 
I went to her quarters to see her, and she had wine 
brought, and told me she would soon serve it to me in 
Paris; and what she did seemed at times quite divine, 
both to look at her and to hear her. Monday at vespers 
she left Selles to go to Romorantin, three leagues in ad- 
vance, the marshal of Boussac and a great many soldiers 
and common people being with her. I saw her get on 
horseback, armed all in white, except her head, with a 
little battle-axe in her hand, riding a great black courser, 
which was very restive at the door of her lodgings, and 
would not let her mount. So she said, "Lead him to 
the cross," which was in front of the church near by, in 
the road. There she mounted without his budging, just 
as if he had been tied, and then she turned toward the 
church door which was close by, and said, "You priests 
and churchmen, make a procession and pray to God." 
She then set out on the road, calling "Forward, forward," 
with her little battle-axe in her hand, and her waving 
banner carried by a pretty page. 

On Monday my lord duke of Alen^on came to Selles 
with a great company, and to-day I won a match from 
him at tennis. I found here a gentleman sent from my 
brother Chauvigny, because he had heard that I had 
reached St. Catherine. The man said that he had sum- 
moned his vassals and expected soon to be here, and that 
he still loved my sister dearly, and that she was stouter 
than she used to be. It is said here that my lord consta- 



122 JOAN OF ARC. 

ble is coming with six hundred men at arms and four 
hundred archers, and that the king never had so great a 
force as they hope to gather. But there is no money at 
court, or so little that for the present I can expect no 
help nor maintenance; so since you have my seal, my 
lady mother, do not hesitate to sell or mortgage my lands, 
or else make some other provision by which we may be 
saved; otherwise through our own fault we shall be dis- 
honored, and perhaps come near perishing, since, if we 
do not do something of the kind, as there is no pay, we 
shall be left quite alone. So far we have been, and we 
still are, much honored, and our coming has greatly 
pleased the king and all his people, and they make us 
better cheer than you could imagine. 

The Maid told me in her lodgings, when I went there 
to see her, that three days before my coming she had sent 
to you, my grandmother, a little gold ring, but she said 
that it was a very little thing and that she would willingly 
have sent you something better considering your rank. 

To-day my lord of Alen^on, the Bastard of Orleans, 
and Gaucourt should leave this place of Selles, and go 
after the Maid, and you have sent I don't know what 
letters to my cousin La Tremoille and to my lord of 
Treves, so that the king wants to keep me with him until 
the Maid has been before the English places around Or- 
leans to which they are going to lay siege, and the artil- 
lery is already prepared, and the Maid makes no doubt 
that she will soon be with the king, saying that when he 
starts to advance toward Eheims I shall go with him; 
but God forbid that I should do this, and not go with 
her at once ; and my brother says so, too, and so does my 
lord of Alen(;on, — such a good-for-nothing will a fellow 
be who stays behind. They think that the king will leave 
here to-day, to draw nearer to the army, and men are 
coming in from all directions every day. They hope that 
before ten days are out affairs will be nearly settled one 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. 123 

way or the other, but all have so good hope in God that 
I believe He will help us. 

My very respected ladies and mothers, we send our 
remembrances, my brother and I, to you, as humbly as 
we can; and please also write us at once news of your- 
selves, and do you, my lady mother, tell me how you 
find yourself after the medicines you have taken, for I 
am much troubled about you. 

My very respected ladies and mothers, I pray the 
blessed son of God to give you a good life and a long 
one, and we both of us also send our remembrances to 
our brother Louis. Written at Selles this Wednesday 
the 8th of June. 

And this vespers there came here my lord of Vendome, 
my lord of Boussac, and others, and La Hire is close to 
the army, and soon they will set to work. God grant 
that we get our wish. 

Your humble sons, 

Guy and Andeew of Laval. ^ 

On Wednesday afternoon Alen^on and Joan left Ro- 
morantin with about two thousand troops and marched 
toward Orleans. They were soon joined by the Bastard 
and other captains, with an equal force, and together 
they entered the city on Thursday, June 9.^ June 9, 
Again there was debate among the leaders. Some ^^"^• 
of them were for attacking Jargeau at once, while others 
dreaded the coming of Fastolf , who was advancing from 
Paris with a considerable body of men, got together by 
Bedford in order to reinforce Talbot and the garri- 
sons on the Loire. The duke of Alen(;on, who had not 
been with Joan at the raising of the siege, describes her 

1 P. V. 105. 

2 P. iii. 10, Bastard; 94, Alenc-on; iv. 170; Joum. Sihge, and note; 
V. 109; Laval's letter, jnst quoted. See iv. 11, Cagny. Alen§on 
says that the force amounted to about 1,200 lances. 



124 JOAN OF ARC. 

influence at this time in terms like tliose used by the 
Bastard and others in speaking of the encouragement she 
gave them five or six weeks before. They should not 
fear the force of the enemy, she said, nor hesitate to 
attack the English, since God was directing their work; 
and she added that, unless she were sure of God's leader- 
ship, she would rather tend sheep than exijose herself to 
danger. Thereupon the captains decided to push the 
war.i 

Jargeau was a compact little town, about four hundred 
yards square, perfectly flat, built close to the south bank 
of the Loire, and connected by a bridge within the vil- 
lage of St. Denis on the north bank. It was defended by 
strong walls, and the fosse outside them was filled with 
water from the river. William Pole, earl of Suffolk, 
held the place with about six hundred men, a force prob- 
ably quite large enough to man the defenses. ^ From 
the church tower he could survey the country for miles, 
and watch every movement of his enemy. Even the 
spires of Orleans could be plainly seen in the distance. 

On Saturday morning the expedition, commanded by 
June 11, AleiKjon, started to travel along the twelve miles 
1429. Qf flg^^ road leading to Jargeau through the 
Sologne. There were three thousand soldiers or there- 
abouts, who had come to Orleans with Joan, and a large 
body of townspeople and men from the country round 
about. A considerable siege train was sent by water.^ 
Early in the afternoon the army approached Jargeau. 
The men of Orleans, encouraged by their marvelous 

^ P. iii. 95, AlenQon. 

3 See Leroy, Jargeau et ses environs ; P. iv. 12, Cagny; 236, Chron. 
Puc. ; V. 56, Martial d'Auvergne. 

8 For this and a detailed account of the munitions sent from Orleans 
to Jargeau, see Villaret, Campagnes des Anglais, 145 et seq.; Leroy, 
190 et seq. One large cannon went by land. Cagny says that there 
were 2,000 or 3,000 soldiers and as many common people. The Joum. 
Siege says there were about 8,000 fighting men altogether. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. 125 

success only a month before, without waiting for the ad- 
vance of the soldiers rushed at once into the ditches and 
tried to storm the place. The garrison stood bravely to 
arms, beat them off without much trouble, and even took 
the offensive, charging upon them and driving them back 
upon the main body. It is likely that the French regu- 
lars were not very sorry to see misfortune befall this un- 
professional warfare; but Joan, who remembered how 
gallantly these citizens had supported her attack on the 
Tourelles, seized her banner and led the men at arms to 
their rescue. The English in turn were driven back; 
the French occupied the environs of the town up to the 
very ditch, and there they passed the night. Confused, 
perhaps, by the zeal of the irregulars, the army was in 
some disorder, and few sentries were posted. Alen^on 
attributed the safety of his men to that leadership of God 
of which Joan had spoken. ^ 

During the night and the early morning the artillery 
was posted, and soon after sunrise the bombard- j^ng 12 
ment began. Suffolk was not unwilling to treat, ■^*"^* 
and offered to surrender the place in fifteen days un- 
less sooner relieved; but the blood of the French was up, 
and La Hire, who parleyed with him, was angrily called 
away. Joan said that the English might leave in their 
tunics if they wished, without arms or armor, otherwise 
the place should be stormed. Suffolk would not consider 
these terms, and the cannons began again. One of the 
towers was destroyed, and the French sharpshooters picked 
off some of the garrison with their culverins.^ 

The English had their artillery, too, and its firing was 
not without effect. As Joan and Alen^on were standing 
together, watching the bombardment, she told him to 
step aside, lest he should be killed by a gun on the walls 
which she pointed out to him. He withdrew, and in a 

^ P. iii. 95, Alen^on; iv. 12, Cagny. 
2 P. i. 79, J.'s test.; iii. 95, Alen§on. 



126 JOAN OP ARC. 

few minutes a gentleman was killed on the very spot. 
Soon she grew impatient; there were rumors of Fastolf's 
approach, and she urged an immediate attack. The 
trumpets sounded, and she cried to Alen^on, " Forward, 
gentle duke, to the assault." He did not advance, as it 
seemed to him that her plan was rash. "Do not hesi- 
tate," she said; "when it pleases God, the hour is pre- 
pared. God helps those who help themselves." Then, 
seeing that he still halted, "Ah, gentle duke," she asked, 
"are you afraid? Do you not know that I promised 
your wife to bring you back safe and sound?" Thereat 
they both rushed to the attack.^ 

It was still Sunday morning when the assault began, 
soldiers and men of Orleans fighting side by side. Again 
Suffolk tried to parley, but this time could get no hear- 
ing. For several hours the struggle went on, Joan in 
the thick of it. Banner in hand, she seized a ladder and, 
as at the Tourelles, tried to mount the wall. One of the 
garrison threw down a stone which knocked the banner 
out of her hand and, striking the light helmet she wore, 
beat her to the ground. At once she sprang up and 
called to the soldiers, "Friends, friends, forward, on- 
ward, our Lord has condemned the English. The day is 
ours. Keep a good heart." ^ 

The English could hold out no longer, the town was 
stormed, and Suffolk retreated toward the bridge ; on that 
side Jargeau was protected from assault by the river, and 
he hoped to escape into the Beauce. The French were 
too close upon him, however; his brother and many of 
the garrison were slain in the narrow streets, while he 
surrendered with all that were left alive. ^ The stubborn - 

1 P. iii. 96, AlenQon; iv. 170, 171, Joum. Siege. 

^ AlenQon and Joum. Siege, ubi supra. 

^ Before surrendering, Suffolk is said to have knighted his captor, 
so that he might not surrender to one of inferior rank. P. iv. 173. 
See Pk.ev. Hist., iv. 332. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. 127 

ness of tlie defense had infuriated the besiegers, among 
whom were many country people wholly without disci- 
pline, and the town was sacked, even to the church, where 
the citizens had stored their goods. In the horrible con- 
fusion, Joan was powerless to stop the sacrilege, but she 
took the experience to heart and profited by it. Even 
some of the prisoners were butchered on the road to Or- 
leans, owing to a quarrel among their captors, and the 
others had to be sent down to the city by boat during the 
night. ^ 

^ See the authorities already quoted, and P. iv. 369, Monstrelet; 
Rel. ined., 29; Leroy, 79 et seq. According to Cagny the French lost 
not over twenty men killed. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE CAMPAIGN OP THE LOIRE. — PATAT. 

On the same evening, or on the next morning, Joan 
June 12- ^iid Alen^on went back to Orleans, whence news 
13, 1429. Qf ^jjQ victory was sent to the king. He had 
moved to Sully, a town between Jargeau and Gien, be- 
longing to La Tremoille, which had become quite safe 
from attack and, fortunately, was on the road to Rheims. 
The news spread northward, also, reaching Paris on 
Tuesday, and filling the English with dismay. ^ 

After Jargeau had been taken, the Loire for about 
fifty miles above Orleans ^ was controlled by the French, 
but below the city Talbot held Beaugency with a moder- 
ate force, while Scales, his lieutenant, was posted at 
Meung.^ The English army of relief, organized by Bed- 
ford as soon as possible after Talbot's retreat from Or- 
leans, had left Paris early in June under the command of 
Sir John Fastolf , and on the day that Jargeau was taken 
it had reached Janville, only twenty-five miles distant.* 
The wisdom of Joan's vigorous attack upon Jargeau was 
now apparent. Fastolf had been pushing forward as 
rapidly as possible, but when he heard of the French 
success he halted, awaiting further reinforcements from 
Normandy. 

Joan was desirous of following up at once the success 

^ See P. iv. 13, Cagny ; 173, Journ. Siege; 452, Fauqueinberque ; 
Beaucourt, ii. 220. 

^ As far up the river as Bonny. 

8 Cagny, who was probably present, estimates the English garri- 
Bon of Meung at abont four hundred men. 

* P. iv. 414, Wavrin ; Stevenson, Wars Eng., ii. 95. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. 129 

she had won at Jargeau. Tuesday was spent in Orleans, 
where the two Lavals were at length allowed to join the 
army. On Wednesday, at Joan's instance, ^ all junei5 
left the city, and with a great force of horsemen ^^^^* 
and footmen, a large siege train, and many well-loaded 
wagons, marched down the Loire to Meung. The forti- 
fied bridge which there crossed the river was attacked at 
once and carried by storm after short resistance. The 
rest of the town was abandoned, and the soldiers of the 
garrison who escaped fled five miles farther down the 
river to Beaugency.^ 

On Wednesday afternoon a part of the French troops 
pushed on after the fugitives. As at Jargeau, the pur- 
suers fell into some disorder, and AleuQon, who j^^e 16 
with a few men passed the night in a church •^^"''^• 
near Meung, thought himself in danger. On Thursday 
morning the army was united before Beaugency.^ 

When Talbot heard of the French advance, having no 
force sufficient to meet them in the field, he left Beau- 
gency and rode to Janville to hasten the march of Fastolf . 
Before his departure, he withdrew the garrisons from one 
or two smaller places, and concentrated in Beaugency 
nearly the whole of his available force under Matthew 
Gough, a Welsh captain of bravery and discretion. As 
Gough had less than a thousand men, he did not try to 
defend the town of Beaugency, but retired into the castle, 
which covered the bridge. The French, accordingly, en- 
tered the town, and at once posted themselves so as to 
prevent Gough 's escape northward through the Beauce; 
it was still possible for him to cross the river into the 
Sologne, but the country south of the Loire was entirely 

1 P. iv. 13, Cagny. 

2 P. iv. 173, Journ. Siege ; 239, Chron. Puc. ; 370, Monstrelet. It 
is impossible to say with certainty by which bank the Frenct 
marched down the Loire ; probably by the northern. 

8 P. iu. 97, Alengon. 



130 JOAN OF ARC. 

hostile to him. The French planted their cannon and 
began the bombardment, which was interrupted by a 
sortie of the English. This cost both sides some men, 
but was at length repulsed.^ 

That very evening news was brought to Joan and to 
Alen^on that the constable of France, Arthur of Riche- 
mont, was close at hand, with a considerable body of 
men. The situation was embarrassing. At the instiga- 
tion of La Tremoille, Charles had forbidden the consta- 
ble's approach, and Alen^on, who was in command of the 
army, had been expressly ordered not to receive him. 
The duke was Richemont's nephew and not his personal 
enemy, yet he was ready to raise the siege and to with- 
draw, though some of the other captains were so favor- 
able to the constable, or so hostile to La Tremoille, that 
they were willing to disregard the king's orders. The 
night passed without a decision, and on Friday morning 
June 17 came a rumor of the advance of the English 
1429. army under Talbot and Fastolf. The soldiers 
cried to arms, and Joan told the duke, who, as he says, 
still wished to retire, that he ought to be glad of Riche- 
mont's coming. 2 

They both mounted and rode out to meet him as he 
came up the river from Blois ; with them went the Bas- 
tard, the two Lavals, and others. Richemont had already 
reached the outskirts of the town. The story of the in- 
terview is told quite differently by his biographer and by 
the so-called Chronicler of the Maid. According to the 
former, Joan threw herself at the constable's feet and 
after some parley was received into his favor; according 
to the latter, Richemont humbly begged Joan to pardon 
his offenses in the king's name, which she did at last, 
being entreated by Alen(^,on and the other captains. 
Both these accounts are fantastical. Richemont was a 

^ P. iv. 414, Wavrin ; 174, Journ. Siege ; 14, Cagny. 
2 P. iii. 98 ; iv. 14, Cagny. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. 131 

proud nobleman, the victim of unjust accusation, as he 
believed, while Joan certainly never knelt to any man 
save to her lawful king. What happened was probably 
much less theatrical. The English were at hand, the 
constable was greeted hastily, perhaps suspiciously, and 
all got ready for battle. ^ 

We must now follow Talbot, who had left Beaugency 
before the arrival of the French. 

Riding quickly with a small escort, he reached Jan- 
ville about noon on Thursday, and found that j„nei6, 
Fastolf had assembled there a council of war. ^'^' i^^- 
The troops were glad of Talbot's coming, for "he was 
then accounted to be the wisest and bravest knight in the 
realm of England." After dinner the council sat again. 
Fastolf was for delay, urging that the result of the cam- 
paign had greatly disheartened the English and encour- 
aged the French, and that it was best to stand on the 
defensive in the strongholds which the English still pos- 
sessed, and to leave the garrison of Beaugency to make 
the best terms possible with its besiegers. Talbot would 
not hear of this plan. To the day of his death he was 
an impetuous man, unable to bear the imputation of cow- 
ardice, and, without a battle, he would not give way be- 
fore a girl. Though he had only his escort and those 
who would follow him, he said, yet he would j^ue 17 
fight the French with the help of God and St. ^^®- 
George. Fastolf yielded, and very early on Friday morn- 
ing the army marched out of Janville.^ 

Even after the troops were drawn up with banners 
flying, Fastolf continued to remonstrate against the move- 
ment, saying that the English were greatly outnumbered, 
and that defeat meant the loss of their dominion in 
France. Again his advice was disregarded, and the army 

1 P. iv. 241, Chron. Puc. ; 317, Gruel. See Bib. Ecole Charles, t. 
xlvii. p. 556. 

2 P. iv. 414: et seq., Wavrin. 



132 JOAN OF ARC. 

marched rapidly on Meung and Beaugency, so rapidly, 
indeed, that in the afternoon it reached a place distant 
about a league from each town. Posted on a small hill 
in front of Beaugency was the body of the French army, 
covering the siege of the castle and bridge. 

Talbot expected an immediate attack, and drew up his 
archers and men at arms to resist it ; then, finding that 
the French did not stir, he sent them heralds to announce 
that three English knights were ready to fight with any 
comers who would descend the hill. Doubtless he in- 
tended by this means to brmg on a battle, but the heralds 
were answered that it was too late, and that the English 
had better encamp for the night. "In the morning," 
said the Frenchmen, "we will look you in the face."^ 

The English, however, had no intention of wasting 
time. Fearing to attack the French in their strong posi- 
tion, they left the field and fell suddenly upon Meung, 
occupying the town without a struggle, though the bridge 
was still held by its French garrison. It was night, but 
Talbot at once brought up his artillery, and the firing 
went on through the darkness. With the bridge of 
Meung in his possession, he could pass the Loire, and, 
marching through the Sologne, could enter Beaugency by 
its bridge. This was still held by Gough and his men, 
the body of the French army being in the Beauce, and 
able to cross the river only with difficulty. When Sat- 
urday morning came, however, the French still held the 
bridge of Meung. ^ 

Meantime, the English garrison of Beaugency was 
in sore straits. Hard pressed, with battered walls, the 
soldiers had seen Alen^on's army reinforced by the con- 

^ See Wavrin, ubi supra. 

2 Wavrin. In the Chron. Puc, P. iv. 241, it is said that the con- 
stable was to lay siege to Beaugency on the side of the Sologne, over 
against the bridge. Apparently, the place surrendered before he 
did so. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. 133 

stable, while the English army was gone they did not 
know where, though they were told by the French that it 
had fallen back on Paris. At about midnight on Fri- 
day Gough capitulated. His men, with their horses and 
arms, were to depart into the English possessions, not to 
bear arms against Charles VII. for a certain time, jung ig 
Gough himself was kept as a hostage. At sun- ^*-■'• 
rise on Saturday these terms were carried out, and the 
French were ready to take the field. -^ 

The news of the surrender of Beaugency reached Tal- 
bot about nine o'clock on Saturday morning, after he 
had heard mass and just as he had ordered an assault 
on the bridge of Meung. The object of his expedition, 
the relief of Beaugency, having altogether failed, his pru- 
dence got the better of his zeal, and he at once ordered 
a retreat to Janville. This was begun in good order, 
the artillery and wagons preceding the main body of the 
army, and the rear protected by a force of picked Eng- 
lishmen. ^ 

At first the French were uncertain what to do. When 
Talbot issued from Meung, they supposed that he would 
again offer battle, and some of the captains seem to have 
suggested a retreat. Alengon asked Joan what was to 
be done. "Let all have good spurs," she answered. 
"What are you saying? shall we turn our backs upon 
them? " cried one of the captains, surprised at such advice 
from her. "No. It is the English who shall not be 
able to defend themselves and shall be overthrown, and 
you will need good spurs to ride after them." Very soon 
the captains saw that Talbot was in full retreat, and all 
started in pursuit. Their advance was somewhat disor- 
derly, so greatly had constant success encouraged them, 
and so much did they fear lest the English should escape. 

^ See P. iv. 241, Chron. Puc. ; and the letter, probably written bj 
Jacques de Bourbon, printed in Rev. Bleue, t. xlix. p. 203. 
2 Wavrin. 



134 JOAN OF ARC. 

The main body of the French was led by Joan, Alen^on, 
and the constable ; while the Bastard and La Hire with a 
force of cavalry hung upon the English rear, harassing 
their retreat, and delaying them until the rest of the 
French should come up. Joan herself wished much to 
join this force, and was angry that La Hire went in her 
place. Constantly she encouraged the pursuit. "In 
God's name we must fight them; if they were hung to 
the clouds, we should have them, for God sent them to 
us that we might punish them." "The gentle king shall 
have to-day the greatest victory he has ever won; my 
council has told me that they all are ours." ^ 

Throughout the morning the English retreated as 
quickly as possible, and they made such good speed that 
early in the afternoon they drew near to Patay, twelve 
miles or more from Meung, and about as far from Jan- 
ville, their objective point. The French had gained 
on them, however, and were within sight of their rear 
guard. Seeing that he could not escape without some 
fighting, Talbot ordered his advance guard, with the 
wagons and artillery, to take position near Patay, behind 
some stout hedges which would cover their front from 
the French cavalry. He himseK dismounted, and with 
five hundred archers halted in a place where the road, 
through which the French must pass, was bordered on 
both sides by a hedge. Here he stood his ground while 
his main body hastened to join the train. ^ 

Either the hedges or the woods at first concealed his 
position, but the French cavalry started a stag, which 
rushed among the English soldiers, and the shout these 
raised discovered them to the French. At once the 

^ P. iii. 10, Bastard; 98, AlenQon; 71, Coutes; iv. 177, Joum. Siege : 
Letter of J. de Bourbon, cited above. 

2 P. iv. 421, Wavrin ; see the notes to De Vassal, BataiUe de Patay, 
For the battle, see P. iv. 67, J. Chartier; 318, Gruel; 340; 371, 
Monstrelet; v. 351. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. 135 

Bastard charged upon Talbot, and routed his command 
after stout resistance, Talbot himself being taken pris- 
oner. His defense, however, might have saved the rest 
of the troops, had they stood to their arms, but they were 
demoralized by their hasty retreat and by the fear of 
Joan. The soldiers posted to protect the train saw Fas- 
tolf hastening toward them; he was trjdng to get his 
command into position before it should be attacked by 
the French, but they supposed that he had been defeated, 
and they took to flight. Fastolf himself turned back to 
the field, hoping to die there or be captured, but he was 
dragged away by his escort and at last rode off to Paris. 
It was bloody work; even at the Tourelles Joan had 
never seen such slaughter, — for the most part slaughter 
of unresisting fugitives. After the English broke, the 
French cavalry had but to ride down the common sol- 
diers, and receive the captains to ransom. ^ A French- 
man was dragging along several English prisoners; for 
some reason, he became angry with one of them, and 
struck him over the head, beating him senseless to the 
ground. This was then a common practice in war if the 
prisoner was not too valuable. But Joan at once dis- 
mounted and raised the prisoner's head, laying it in her 
lap; then she sent for a priest, and had him confessed, 
meanwhile comforting him as best she could. ^ 

The French victory was complete. When at last some 
of the English fugitives reached Janville the inhabitants 
rose and barred the gates, and forced the commandant of 
the citadel to swear allegiance to Charles.^ The English 
at once evacuated all the places they still held in the 
Beauce, and the country was clear of them almost as far 

^ The rest of those killed, says Monstrelet, " were all men of small 
and mean estate, such as they are wont to bring from their own 
country to die in France." P. iv. 374. 

2 P. iii. 71, Coutes. 

» P. iv. 244, Chron. Puc. 



136 JOAN OF AEC. 

as Paris. As Alen9on, tHe constable, and Joan entered 
Patay after the fight, Talbot was brought before them. 
The duke said to his prisoner, perhaps in courteous excuse 
for so great a victory, that even on that very morning 
he did not suppose the like success to be possible, which 
Talbot answered with true English taciturnity by say- 
ing that it was the fortune of war. He was ransomed 
almost immediately, and complained bitterly, though un- 
justly, as it seems, that he had lost the battle through 
Fastolf's cowardice.^ 

In the campaign of the Loire, as it is usually called, 
the French had thus obtained complete success. Within 
a week they had taken three fortified places, had de- 
stroyed an English army in the field, and had freed sev- 
eral hundred square miles of country from the enemy. 
So much is clear, but we have yet to consider what share 
of this great success was due to Joan. That she was 
responsible for the tactics of the French army is not 
likely, for it was commanded by experienced officers, who 
directed the details of all movements. She was hardly 
responsible for the strategy of the campaign, for of strat- 
egy there seems to have been little. Indeed, as Talbot 
commanded the largest English force on the Loire, and 
as he was instantly expecting reinforcements, it seems 
that the French should first have attacked him at Meung 
and Beaugency, and should have left Suffolk at Jargeau 
until afterwards. To treat the successes of Joan like 
those of Alexander or Napoleon is gravely to mistake her 
power. 

After all this has been said, however, it remains true 
that the success of the campaign was chiefly due to her. 
The two causes which gave victory to the French were 
the different morale of the two armies and the quickness 
of the French movements. That the excellent morale 

^ See P. iv. 375, Monstrelet. For Talbot's ransom, see Stevenson, 
Wars Eng., i. 422. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE. 137 

of the Frencli and the doubtful morale of the English 
troops were both due to Joan is plain to any one reading 
the history of the siege of Orleans. "Before she came," 
writes a French chronicler of the time, "two hundred 
English used to chase five hundred Frenchmen ; after her 
coming two hundred Frenchmen used to chase four hun- 
dred English." "The courage of the English," said a 
soldier serving under Fastolf, "was much changed and 
weakened ; they saw their men enfeebled, and found them 
less firm in their judgment than they were wont to be."^ 
Again, the remarkable quickness and vigor of the 
French movements were largely the result of Joan's inces- 
sant exhortations. She urged the march on Jargeau, and 
a speedy assault. Had the place been suffered to hold 
out a day or two longer, Fastolf would have relieved it, 
or would have joined Talbot at Beaugency, for it was the 
news of the fall of Jargeau that halted his relieving army 
at Janville. It was Joan who advised the expedition 
against Meung and Beaugency, and it was she who 
pressed on the pursuit of Talbot, and thus secured the 
great victory of Patay. Alen^on, the Bastard, the con- 
stable, and La Hire, all served creditably, yet it is alto- 
gether probable that without Joan's vigorous counsels 
the French success would have been incomplete. It 
should be said, besides, that she showed good judgment 
in dealing with the constable, and considerable self-re- 
straint in declining Talbot's challenge on Friday, when 
a hostile fortress and an almost impassable river were 
in the rear of the French army. Considering all these 
things, it is no wonder that a captain who served with 
her in this campaign, and testified about her twenty-five 
years afterwards, looking back over a life of almost in- 

^ P. iv. 221, CTiron. Puc. ; 418, Wavrin. The implication subtly 
conveyed by the precise numbers that the previous demoralization 
of the French was a little greater than the subsequent demoralization 
of the English is noteworthy, though perhaps accidental. 



138 JOAN OF ARC. 

cessant warfare, should have said that in all her deeds he 
believed there was more of the divine than of the human. 
The lasting glamour which her enthusiasm cast over him 
made him add that, in the leading of soldiers and in the 
art of war, in the setting of battle and in the encourage- 
ment of troops, she bore herself like the most skillful 
captain in the world. ^ 

1 See P. iii. 120, Thibaud d'Armagnac 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE MARCH TO RHEIMS. 

The battle of Patay was won on Saturday, June 18, 
in the afternoon. That night the army slept at june 18- 
or about Patay ; on Sunday, after an early din- ^"^' ^'^^• 
ner, Joan returned to Orleans with Alen9on and most of 
the captains. 1 The constable withdrew apart to Beau- 
gency, where he waited for the king's permission to come 
to court. All efforts to secure this were vain; Joan gnd 
Alen9on begged for it, two nobles of Richemont's suite 
went down on their knees to La Tremoille, but the favor- 
ite was inexorable. Apparently the constable did not 
think himself strong enough to force his way into 
Charles's presence. Perhaps he did not wish to endanger 
the expedition to Rheims. He attempted the siege of 
a fortress not far from Beaugency, and, having failed 
through no fault of his own, returned in disgust to his 
estates. 2 Never again did he meet Joan. 

The news of Patay spread quickly to all parts of 
France. In Paris the partisans of England and Bur- 
gundy were in great fear. On Tuesday, when the news 
of the battle reached the city, there was a riot, and many 
believed that the victorious French were close on the 
heels of the English fugitives. It was still dangerous 
to be called an Armagnac, but it was whispered about 
the city that the English had been routed almost without 

1 P. iv. 16, Caguy. 

2 P. iv. 245, Chron. Puc. ; 319, Gruel. See Lobineaii, Hist. Bretagne, 
I 579; P. iv. 17, Cagny; 46, Berry; 179, Joum. Siege. 



140 JOAN OF ARC. 

resistance, and men's fear of them was therefore much 
lessened.^ 

On the other hand, when the mayor of La Rochelle 
received the bulletin sent by Charles, he ordered at once 
that all the bells should be rung, that all citizens should 
assemble in their parish churches to hear a Te Deum, 
and that bonfires should be lighted at the corners of the 
streets. On the next day there was a general procession 
to the church of Our Lady, and each child in La Rochelle 
was bribed by a cake to run before the crowd and shout 
"Noel" for joy. 2 

In Orleans, as was natural, the joy was greatest. The 
people poured out to welcome Joan, and filled the 
churches, thanking "God, the Virgin Mary, and the 
blessed Saints of Paradise for the mercy and the honor 
which our Lord had shown to the king and to them 
all."^ At this time the agents of the duke of Orleans, 
acting under orders either sent by him from England or 
given by the Bastard in his behalf, provided for Joan 
clothes made of the richest stuffs, of red and green, his 
own colors, as if she were his champion. The blouse was 
green, dark green to denote his captivity; the long flow- 
ing cloak worn over it was made of fine crimson cloth of 
Brussels.* 

It may seem strange to some readers that Joan, the 
messenger of God, should have allowed herself to be 
gorgeously dressed. Probably she did not think that 
her mission was concerned with clothes of one sort or 
another. Presents of fine clothing and of rich stuffs 
were then common, and it was characteristic of Joan to 
take life as she found it, so that she was not hindered 
in her own work. Besides, she was no ascetic, and, like 

^ P. iv. 452, Fauquemberque ; Journ. Bourg., ann. 1429. 

^ Rel. ined., 31. 

8 P. iv. 16, Cagny. 

4 P. V. 112. See Vallet de Viriville, Charles VIL, ii. 136, n. 



THE MARCH TO RHEIMS. 141 

other girls everywhere, may well have taken innocent 
pleasure in gay colors. From the time she reached court 
until she became a prisoner, wherever her dress is de- 
scribed, it is always rich and brilliant. 

The people of Orleans expected Charles to come to 
their city, since it was threatened no longer, and they 
decked their streets to welcome him.i He gave no sign 
of leaving Sully, however, where La Tremoille had him 
under complete control, and so, on Monday or Tuesday, ^ 
Joan set out from Orleans and joined him, meaning to 
urge his instant departure for Rheims. Again there was 
delay and doubt. ^ La TremoiUe dreaded an advance; 
indeed, in the excitement of men's minds, he dreaded 
everything. Others honestly thought it madness to march 
more than a hundred miles through a hostile country full 
of fortified towns, with an active enemy on both flanks and 
in the rear. A day or two after Joan's arrival at Sully, 
Charles left the place for some unknown reason, crossed 
to the north bank of the Loire, and went to Chateauneuf, 
about fifteen miles down the river, and so much nearer 
Orleans. Again Joan made to him a personal appeal. 
Little by little she was learning that even the messenger 
of God can do nothing if men will not heed the message. 
Her anxiety and discouragement touched the king, who 
was not an ill-natured man, and he tried to soothe her. 
With tears in her eyes she told him that he must not 
hesitate, and that he would gain his whole realm, and 
would shortly be crowned.* 

A council of war was held ; moved by Joan's entreaties 
or directed by the courage with which she had inspired 
almost all Frenchmen, it decided to risk an advance. 

^ P. iv. 178, Joum. Siege ; 245, Chron. Puc. 
2 June 20, 21. 

^ "Rex festinanter tendit ad consecrationem." P. v. 121, Bou- 
lain vi] Hers. 
* P. iii. 116, Simon Charles ; iv. 245, Chron. Puc. 



142 JOAN OF ARC. 

Gien was appointed as the rendezvous, whitlier Charles 
went at once. The queen was sent for, that she, too, 
June 2i- niight be crowned, and Joan returned to Orleans 
27, ii29. ^Q bring up the troops and munitions which had 
been left in that city. On Friday ^ she also started for 
Gien.2 

Thither flocked all sorts of men from all parts of loyal 
France. The royal treasury was almost empty, the pay 
was the scantiest, but enthusiasm took the place of money 
and even of arms. The war had made some gentlemen 
of good family very poor. Bueil, one of the French 
leaders, tells us that he began life by eking oiit his rags 
with the washing stolen from a neighboring castle.^ 
Many of these gentlemen, much too poor to arm or to 
mount themselves as became their station, joined the 
expedition on foot armed only with bows or knives. 
"Each one of them," says a chronicler, "had great belief 
that by means of Joan much good would come to the 
realm of France, and so they desired earnestly to serve 
under her, and to learn her deeds, as if the matter were 
God's doing."* There were wonders in the air; in 
Poitou men saw knights in full armor blazing with fire 
ride through the sky, threatening ruin to the duke of 
Brittany for his friendliness to the English.^ All Europe 
was curious, and letters were sent off to foreign princes, 
which gave full account of Joan's exploits, embellished 
with many myths and marvels.^ If La Tremoille and 
his friends had been willing, it was said, the royal army 
might have been large enough to drive the English from 

1 June 24. 

2 Mary of Anjou had been in Bourges for some time ; see P. iii. 85, 
La Touroulde ; iv. 180, Journ. Siege ; 247, Chron. Puc. For Joan's 
movements, see iv. 17, Cagny. 

2 See Jouvencel, ed. Lecestre, i. 16, 20, 23, 24 ; P. iv. 71, J. Chartier. 

* P. iv. 248, Chron. Puc. 
6 P. v. 121. 

• See P. V. 99, 114, and the letter of J, de Bourbon, already cited. 



THE MARCH TO RHEIMS. 143 

France. But no one dared to speak openly against the 
favorite, though all knew that the fault was his.^ 

Arrived at Gien in the midst of all this excitement, 
Joan wrote on Saturday to the "Gentle loyal French- 
men " of Tournai. Alone of all the cities in northern 
France, Tournai had been faithful to Charles ; for a hun- 
dred miles about it, the country was ruled by English 
and Burgundians. Joan's letter to the citizens was full 
of her usual confidence, which had been confirmed by the 
decision to march on Rheims. After telling them of her 
victories, "Keep yourselves good loyal Frenchmen, I pray 
you," she wrote; "and I pray and request that you hold 
yourselves ready to come to the consecration of the gentle 
king Charles at Rheims, where we shall come shortly. To 
God I commend you; may God have you in his keeping, 
and give you grace to maintain the good quarrel of the 
realm of France."^ 

Although the expedition had been agreed upon in the- 
ory, yet there was so much dispute over its line of march 
as to make probable an indefinite delay. From Gien 
westward to the Bay of Biscay, Charles's enemies had no 
post on the Loire; but higher up the river, nearly south 
of Gien,^ the Anglo -Burgundians held the fortresses of 
Bonny, Cosne, and La Charite.* The garrisons of these 
places, if strong enough to take the field, were so placed 
that they could easily cut the king's line of communica- 
tions as he marched on Rheims, and therefore some of his 
councilors urged him to reduce these towns before his de- 
parture. In giving this advice, they talked a deal about 
going to Rheims by way of La Charite ; but as the former 

^ See P. iv. 71, J. Chartier ; 179, Journ. Siege. 

2 P. V. 123. For the condition of Tournai, see Monstrelet, Bk. 
11. chaps, vi., XV., cxxxix. ; Beaucourt, ii. 9, note. 

^ It must be remembered that above Gien the Loire flows nearly 
due north. 

* La Charitd is highest on the river, Bonny lowest. 



144 JOAN OF ARC. 

is a hundred and thirty miles northeast of Gien, while 
the latter is forty miles to the south, it may easily be seen 
how great would have been the delay caused by taking 
this road, apart from the time needed to reduce two or 
three strong fortresses. Joan's voices told her that the 
king coidd reach Rheims in safety, if he would but try; 
both she and Alen9on doubtless wished to take advan- 
tage of the English demoralization and want of troops, 
and so they strongly opposed any deviation from the 
direct line of march. ^ The fortune of war favored their 
plans. On Sunday, Bonny surrendered to the admiral of 
France,^ and the nearest force of the enemy was thus 
disposed of .^ On Monday,* Joan crossed the Loire with 
some of her troops, so as to excite the king to follow her. 
June 29, On Wednesday, June 29, he, or his council for 
1429. him, came to a decision, and the march began. ^. 
Before describing it in detail, it is necessary to review 
briefly the condition of France as changed by the French 
successes about Orleans, and to consider the advantages 
and the difficulties attending an advance on Rheims. 

The battle of Patay not only was a defeat for the Eng- 
lish, but it practically destroyed their only force which 
was fit to take the field. The regent Bedford, both a 
soldier and a statesman, labored incessantly to gather 
fresh troops, but time was needed to bring them from 
England, and he could not at once interpose an army to 
prevent the march of Charles upon Rheims. There were 
cities, indeed, through or past which Charles must march, 
and which by an obstinate resistance might delay him 
until Bedford should have gathered his army, but the 
condition of these cities was peculiar. Most of them had 
fallen to the Anglo-Burgundians about the time of the 

^ See p. iv. 17, Cagny ; 180, Journ. Siege; 248, Chron. Puc. 
* Louis of Culant. 

8 P. iv. 179, Journ. Siege ; 246, Chron. Puc. * June 27. 

6 P. iv. 17, Cagny ; 71, J. Chartier ; 180, Journ. Siege. 



THE MARCH TO EHEIMS. 145 

treaty of Troyes (1420). Charles VI. was then king of 
France, recognized by Armagnacs and Anglo-Burgun- 
dians alike, though the latter controlled his person and 
both claimed the exclusive right to speak in his name. 
The cities, therefore, made little difficulty in adhering to 
the treaty, though it recognized as the crazy king's heir 
his son-in-law Henry V., rather than his son Charles. 
They had no love of the Armagnac brigands and adven- 
turers, who were in power at the Dauphin's court. Their 
municipal charters were treated with decent respect, for 
Bedford assumed to govern by law, and not as a con- 
queror, and therefore they made no attempt to revolt 
when the baby Henry, their old king's grandson, was 
proclaimed his successor. As the war dragged on year 
after year, however, their patriotism was gradually 
aroused. Outside of Paris the fierce partisan hatred of 
the Armagnacs had almost disappeared, and after the 
help of Heaven had been plainly given to Charles VII., 
few were zealous to oppose his march. The men of 
Champagne had no intention of revolting actively against 
the English rule. Officially, Charles was still their 
enemy; but to fight for a defeated foreigner against a 
victorious countryman seemed to them absurd. 

It is true that there were garrisons in most of these 
places, commanded by captains in the pay of the English. 
But the garrisons were small, — reduced, perhaps, to 
reinforce the army which had been defeated at Patay, — 
and without help from the trained bands of the city, they 
were unable to offer decided resistance to Charles. Their 
commanders were old Burgundian partisans or noblemen 
who had accepted English rule. They would not betray 
their posts, but they could not forget that at some time 
they might become Charles's subjects; and, besides, they 
were embarrassed by the vacillation of the duke of Bur- 
gundy, to whom they looked for guidance. In a word, 
the obstacles to Charles's advance were very formidable 



146 JOAN OF ARC. 

to look at, and would really be formidable if at any time 
lie should meet with a serious check; but should he meet 
with any decided success, they were of a sort to disappear 
at once and altogether. 

The third element in the situation was Philip the 
Good, duke of Burgundy. His anger over his father's 
murder had cooled in ten years, and during that time he 
had had many disagreements with the English. More 
than once he had begun to negotiate with Charles and 
had made truces with him for part of their possessions.^ 
He seems to have had an underlying belief that at some 
time and somehow Charles would become king of France, 
— though how much would be left of the kingdom after 
satisfying Philij)'s ambition and the claims he should 
choose to make on behalf of his English allies might be 
uncertain. Now that Charles had met with unexpected 
success, Philip was urged by jealousy to draw close to 
Bedford. He did not answer the letter that Joan wrote 
him from Gien, and he joined the regent in Paris; on 
the other hand, he still held himself ready to treat with 
Charles. His vacillation perplexed everybody, and no 
one more than his own servants. His councilors at Di- 
jon, probably left to their own devices, sent messengers 
to La Tr^moille to ask what the French intended to do. 
The precise answer which the favorite gave we do not 
know, but its purport may be guessed by his subsequent 
action. 2 

On leaving Gien the royal army marched against Au- 

xerre, about fifty miles to the eastward, to which 

July 5, town and to others near by Charles had sent let- 

^^^' ters commanding submission. One small place ^ 

on the road acknowledged him ; but the men of Auxerre 

I See Beaucourt, ii. 357, 361, 370, 373, 384, 389, 390, 401, 419 ; Plan- 
cher, Hist. Bourgogne, iv. 126. 
^ Beaucourt, ii. 401. 
8 St. Fargeau, on the Loing. P. iv. 377, Monstrelet. 



THE MARCH TO RHEIMS. 147 

were unwilling to do so, more because they were afraid to 
open their gates to an army of Armagnacs than because 
they were hostile to his claim to the throne. They 
looked to the duke of Burgundy much more than to the 
English. Their agents, perhaps joining those of the Bur- 
gundian council at Dijon, sought out La Tremoille and 
offered him money to spare the city from assault. He 
was able to carry out the corrupt bargain, probably by 
urging that Philip ought to be kept in good humor, 
though Joan and some of the captains declared it would 
be easy to take the city. Auxerre supplied the hungry 
army with food, made some vague promise of submission 
if the cities of Champagne should yield, and kept its 
gates safely shut. With somewhat diminished prestige 
and with complaints of the favorite, the army left Au- 
xerre on July 2 or 3, and marched on Troyes, the capital 
of Champagne, about forty miles to the northeast.^ 

Whatever might be the divisions in the royal army, 
the whole province of Champagne was greatly excited 
and the English partisans were much alarmed. The 
country was full of wild rumors. An English captain 
wrote to the men of Rheims that Charles was advancing 
by way of Montargis, some sixty miles distant from the 
road he actually took.^ In other places it was reported 
that Auxerre had been taken by storm and four thousand 
of its inhabitants put to the sword. ^ No city was sure 
of its neighbor. Each wondered if the other would open 
its gates to Charles, each feared to be the last or to set 
the example. 

Thus the men of Troyes, on July 1, wrote to Rheims, 
knowing that Rheims was Charles's ultimate destination, 
and hearing that some of its citizens had promised to 

^ P. iv. 72, J. Chartier ; 181, Journ. Siege ; 377, Monstrelet. See 
Plancher, Hist. Bourgogne, iv. 130 ; J. dans les chroniques messines. dd. 
de Bouteiller, 21. 

2 P. iv. 286. 3 Letter of J. de Bourbon, cited above. 



148 JOAN OF AKC. 

open its gates to him. They themselves would do nothing 
of the sort, so wrote the men of Troyes, but would "up- 
hold the cause of the king [Henry VI.] and of the duke 
of Burgundy even to death inclusive." ^ By July 4 or 5, 
the advancing army was come within fifteen or twenty 
miles of Troyes,^ and letters were sent forward to that 
city both from Charles and from Joan. The former 
demanded admittance and promised amnesty for all past 
offenses, the latter was in different style. "My very 
dear and good friends, if indeed you all are such," it be- 
gan, " lords, burghers, and citizens of the town of Troyes, 
Joan the Maid in the name of the King of Heaven, her 
rightful and sovereign Lord, in whose royal service she 
daily stands, bids you give true obedience to the gentle 
king of France,^ who will shortly be at Rheims and Paris, 
and in the good towns of his holy realm, by the aid of 
King Jesus, come what may. Loyal Frenchmen, come 
before king Charles without fail, and fear not for your 
bodies or your goods, if so be that you come; and if you 
do not come I promise you on your lives that with God's 
help we will enter into all the towns which belong to this 
holy realm, and will make a firm peace, come what may. 
To God I commend you. God have you in his keeping, 
if such be his pleasure. Answer shortly."* 

These letters reached Troyes, as it seems, early on the 
morning of July 5, and at once copies of them were 

1 P. iv. 286, 287. 

2 On July 4 Charles VII. wrote to Rheims from Briiion I'Arch- 
evgque. Jadart, /. a Reims, 84. Joan wrote to Troyes from St. 
Fale, Tuesday, July 4. P. iv. 288 (July 4 was Monday). Probably 
July 5 is the true date, as St. Fale is about fifteen miles nearer Troyes 
than Brinon. 

^ Contrary to custom, Joan here calls Charles, King of France. 
This may have been a slip of the scribe; or the close connection of 
the clause with the name of Rheims may have led her, perhaps un« 
consciously, to anticipate the coronation by a few days. 

* P. iv. 287. 



THE MARCH TO RHEIMS. 149 

sent on to Rlieims, with assurances that Troyes would 
hold out to the death. Its people begged the men j^jy 5^ 
of Rhehns to have pity on them, and to send to •^^^^• 
Bedford and to Burgundy for help. At about nine 
o'clock in the morning the advance-guard of the royal 
army appeared, and formally summoned Troyes to sur- 
render. This the town council refused to do, pleading 
by way of excuse an oath taken to the duke of Burgundy. 
During the afternoon, before the investment of the city 
was accomplished, the councilors smuggled away another 
messenger with another letter to the men of Rheims, again 
asserting that they would resist to the death. This letter 
said that Joan was a fool full of the Devil, whose letter 
had neither rhyme nor reason, and had been thrown into 
the fire after being heartily laughed at. Again the men 
of Rheims were warned that some of their own people 
were traitors, and that they must be on their guard. ^ 
We shall see later what action was taken by the men of 
Rheims in consequence of this letter and of the rest of 
the correspondence. 

For several days the royal army was encamped about 
Troyes in the hope that the city would surren- j^^y 5_8 
der. There was some parleying and an occa- ^^^^" 
sional skirmish, but nothing of importance, and the 
burghers doubtless expected the terms granted to Au- 
xerre. Toward the end of the week the supplies of the 
besiegers ran low. All realized that it was impossible to 
stay where they were much longer, and a council of war 
was held, attended by civilians as well as by the captains, 
but not by Joan. The archbishop of Rheims, chancellor 
of France, a creature of La Tremoille, spoke of the want 
of food and money, artillery and men, of the strength 
of Troyes, and of the obstinacy of its inhabitants. Gien, 
the base of supplies, was thirty leagues away, and the 
army was in peril. When he had finished, he called 
1 P. iv. 289 et seq. 



150 JOAN OF AEC. 

upon tie councilors, one after another, for tlieir opinion. 
Nearly all were against continuing the siege, arguing 
that Troyes was stronger than Auxerre, which they had 
not been able to take ; some were for going home, others 
for passing by the place and struggling on toward 
Rheims, with hostile fortresses in their rear. When it 
came to the turn of Robert le Ma9on, formerly councilor 
of Charles VI. and once chancellor himself,^ he said that 
the march had been undertaken, in reliance neither upon 
the number of their troops nor upon the richness of the 
treasurj^, but because Joan the Maid advised them that 
such was the will of God. He suggested, therefore, that 
she should be called to the council. When she came in, 
the archbishop told her the substance of the debate, where- 
upon she turned to the king, and asked if she should be 
believed. He answered that this depended upon her 
words. "Good Dauphin," she said, "command your 
people to advance and besiege Troyes, and do not delay 
longer over your councils; for in God's name, before 
three days I will bring you into Troyes, by favor or force 
or valor, and false Burgundy shall be greatly amazed." 
The archbishop said they would wait six days for such a 
result, but doubted if it could be accomplished ; whereat 
she told him not to doubt. Thereupon the council broke 
up. 2 

"Immediately," says the Bastard, "she crossed the 
river with the royal army, pitched tents close to the 
walls, and labored with a diligence that not two or three 
most experienced and renowned captains could have 
shown. She worked so hard through the night that on 
the morrow the bishop and citizens submitted in fear and 
trembling. Afterwards it was found out that from the 
time when she advised the king not to withdraw from be- 

^ See Beauconrt, i. 64. 

2 P. iii. 13 , Bastard ; 117, S. Charles ; iv. 72, J. Chartier ; 181, 
Journ. Siege. 



THE MAECH TO RHEIMS. 151 

fore the city, the citizens lost heart, and had no wish but 
to escape and flee to the churches."^ In fact, it July 9, 
needed but a show of resokition to destroy once ^^^' 
for all the fictitious devotion of Troyes to the fortunes 
of England and Burgundy. The garrison was small ; out- 
side of it there was no real opposition to Charles, and the 
bishop seems to have favored him strongly. A deputation 
was sent to the king to treat for terms of peace. It was 
agreed that the soldiers shoidd be allowed to retire with 
their property ; that the churchmen appointed to prefer- 
ment under King Henry should all be confirmed by King 
Charles ; that no garrison should be left in the town, no 
new taxes imposed; that the municipal franchises should 
be respected, and amnesty granted to all.^ 

At this time there was in the city of Troyes one 
Friar Richard, a Franciscan, who had made much stir 
throughout northeastern France. During Advent he had 
preached in Champagne, and two or three months later 
had gone to Paris, where thousands of people slept on 
the ground over night that they might get good places 
to hear him the next day. He preached that Antichrist, 
foretold by Scripture, was already born, and he so 
wrought upon his hearers that in Paris more than one 
hundred bonfires might be seen, in which the men burnt 
their cards and gaming-tables, the women their head- 
dresses and pads and gewgaws ; indeed, the ten sermons 
which he delivered turned more people to devotion than 
all the sermoners who had been in Paris for a hun- 
dred years,^ After a few weeks he was forced to leave 
the city, because either his theology or his politics was 

1 P. iii. 13, 14, Bastard. 

* Recueil des Ordonnances, xiii. 142. See P. iv. 183, Journ. Siege ; 
V. 352. 

' Such revivals were not uncommon. In 1428 a Carmelite friar 
had great success in northern France. Four years later he was 
burnt at Rome as a heretic. Monstrelet, Bk. II. chaps, liii., cxxvii. 



152 JOAN OF ARC. 

suspected, and he had found his way back to Troyes, 
where he enjoyed a great reputation. This man, honest, 
fervid, emotional, living in the belief that God and Anti- 
christ were shortly to join battle on the earth, went out 
of Troyes while the negotiations were going on, urged 
by the citizens or by his own curiosity to discover what 
sort of a creature this Maid might be who called herself 
the messenger of God.^ 

With all his zeal. Friar Richard was not the man to 
neglect reasonable precautions. Only a few days before 
the men of Troyes had called Joan the devil's fool, or a 
"lyme of the Feende," as the English put it.^ When 
the friar caught sight of her, accordingly, he began to 
cross himself vigorously, and to sprinkle holy water. 
Joan's sense of the ridiculous was keen, and she told 
him to come on boldly, for she had no intention of flying 
away from him. They had some conversation together, 
and the good man was so completely converted that he 
rushed back into Troyes and loudly declared that she 
was a holy maid sent by God, who could, if she wished, 
cause the French men at arms to enter Troyes by flying 
over the walls. He joined himself to the royal expedi- 
tion and followed Joan until, as we shall see, his love 
of the marvelous was tickled by a new-comer. When 
the Burgundians of Paris heard of his apostasy, with 
delightful logic they cursed God and the saints, took to 
gaming again, and threw into the Seine the medals he 
had distributed with the monogram of Jesus stamped on 
them.^ 

On Sunday, July 10, Charles entered Troyes, and was 

^ See Luce, ccxlv., elxxviii., ccxxvii. ; Chapotin, J. et les Dominicains; 
Journ. B(yij,rg., ann. 1429. T. Basin, ed. Qixieherat, iv. 103; Rev. Blcue, 
t. xlix. 201 ; P. i. 99, 102, J.'s test. ; Livre des Trahisons, in Chron. 
Belg. ined., ii. 197. 

2 See P. V. 136. 

8 p. i. 100, J.'s test. ; Rel. ined., 33 ; Journ. Bourg., ann. 1429. 



THE MARCH TO RHEIMS. 153 

royally received. As the old garrison marched away, the 
soldiers undertook to carry with them their pris- juiy lo, 
oners, alleging that these were part of the prop- ■^*^'^- 
erty guaranteed by the capitulation. Joan saw the 
wretched men driven along ; she was indignant that her 
countrymen should be carried into captivity before the 
eyes of her victorious army, and she refused to allow it. 
The terms of the treaty, as understood at the time, seem 
to have justified the garrison, however, and the king was 
compelled to pay the captors a reasonable ransom. ^ 

With the fall of Troyes, all opposition to Charles in 
Champagne collapsed. The men of Troyes wrote j^iy lo- 
at once to Kheims, explaining their change of ^^' ^^^' 
front as best they might, and calling Charles the prince 
of the greatest wisdom, understanding, and valor ever 
born to the noble house of France. On the day follow- 
ing its entry into Troyes, the army marched on Chalons, 
which within a week had declared its intention of resist- 
ing the royalists with all its might. It now eagerly 
opened its gates, and in a letter to Eheims, described the 
sweet, gracious, pitiful, and compassionate person of 
Charles, his noble demeanor and high understanding, and 
counseled the men of Rheims to send their representa- 
tives to meet him without delay. ^ 

It was not in the nature of the men of Rheims to with- 
stand this reasoning and eloquence. Less than a fort- 
night before, they had professed devotion to their Anglo- 
Burgrmdian rulers, and had informed them of all that 
went on. A little later, they had ordered a religious 
procession for the ambiguous purpose of moving the 
people to peace, love, and obedience. They had gone so 
far as to summon in haste to Rheims the captain of the 
city, who was then absent, but they had requested him to 

1 P. iv. 76, J. Chartier; 184, Chron. Puc; 252, Journ. Siege; 285, 
296; V. 63, Martial d'Auvergne; 130; Jadart, 85. 
« P. iv. 18, Cagny; 298. 



154 JOAN OF ARC. 

limit his escort to forty or fifty horsemen. This the cap= 
tain declined to do, lest he should be made a prisoner. 
Assembling a considerable force, he proposed to defend 
the city until the duke of Burgundy should get together 
an army for its relief, but, after some parleying, the men 
of Rheims declined to admit this force within their walls. 
They continued, however, to listen to letters from the 
captain and from others, who promised help ; they made 
light of the surrender of Troyes, and ridiculed Joan, 
saying that she could not bear comparison with a well- 
known female fool of the duke's. When Charles actu- 
ally reached Chalons, Rheims hesitated no longer. Some 
of the principal men of the town went to meet him at the 
castle of Sept Saux, about fifteen miles distant, and there 
received full and general pardon for all past offenses.^ 

The chancellor entered his archiepiscopal city on Sat- 
urday morning; after dinner the king and Joan rode 
in with many councilors and captains. The burghers 
crowded the streets and gave them a hearty welcome, 
showing, as was natural, great curiosity to see Joan.^ 

Throughout the march she had ridden armed like the 
other captains, sometimes with the king, sometimes in the 
van, sometimes covering the rear, always ready for sud- 
den alarm or for her turn at mounting guard. She did 
not command the army, indeed, but at the critical mo- 
ment of the campaign it was her advice that brought 
about the surrender of Troyes, and the demonstration 
against the city was made under her direction. She had 
the habit, about dusk, when the army was encamped for 
the night, of going into some church to pray. The bells 
were rung, the friars who followed the army gathered 
there, and she caused them to sing a hymn to the Virgin.^ 

1 P. iv. 292 et seq.; Jadart, 116. See iv. 184, /ourn. Siege; 378, 
Monstrelet ; Luce, clxxiii. For the condition of Rheims, see Varin, 
Arch. Leg. Reims, Stat. t. i. 529, 547, 738 et seq. 

2 P. iv. 19, Cagny ; 185, Journ. Siege. 

•* P. iii. 14, Bastard ; see v. 13, Christine de Pisan ; iv. 70, J. Char- 



THE MARCH TO EHEIMS. 155 

When It was possible, she slept with women, — with girls 
of her own age, if they could be found; otherwise she 
kept on her armor. ^ If she was asked, she would stand 
godmother for some little baby about to be baptized. ^ 
She always tried to make the soldiers lead resj)ectable 
lives, but apparently without universal success, for when 
she was in the neighborhood of Auxerre, she broke the 
old sword she had received from Fierbois across the back 
of some loose women who followed the troops. The su- 
perstitious king, whose own loose character she was too 
loyal to suspect, was much irritated, and told her that 
she ought to use a stick instead.^ At Chalons she met 
some old acquaintances, and at Eheims she found her 

tier. The account given in this and in the preceding chapters is 
believed to describe the position Joan held in the French army with 
as much accuracy as is possible in a matter of the sort. The position 
was one not known to military treatises and it cannot be precisely 
defined in military terms. It was quite supplementary to any con- 
ceivable military organization. Probably Joan had not the right of 
military command over any one outside of her own military house- 
hold, perhaps half a dozen men in all. At the same time she as- 
sumed, and was allowed and intended to assume in certain emergen- 
cies, to command every one whom she could reach by her voice, and 
her advice was sometimes taken and followed, even when opposed to 
the conclusions previously reached by the commanding- general or 
by a council of war. She probably attributed to herself a military 
rank somewhat more definite than that she really possessed. This 
her belief in her divine mission would naturally lead her to do. After 
making every possible allowance for exaggeration, and for the pre- 
judice in her favor which existed at the time of her second trial, 
however, it is impossible to doubt that her common sense, courage, 
and vigor, as well as her claim of inspiration, gave her compan- 
ions in arms great respect for her advice. (See p. iii. 100, Alen^onj 
116, Simon Charles; 119, Thib. d'Armagnac.) To discuss her the- 
oretical rank in the army woidd lead to no important conclusion; her 
actual position and influence must be gathered from what she actually 
accomplished. 

^ P. iii. 70, Coutes; 81, Beaucroix. 

2 P. i. 103, J.'s test. 

2 P. iii. 73, Coutes; 81, Beaucroix; 99, Alengon; see iv. 71, 93. 



156 JOAN OF AEG. 

cousin Laxart and her father, who had come to see her 
triumph. The men of Rheims paid his expenses at the 
hotel of the Zebra, and gave him a horse to ride back to 
Domremy.i What passed between him and Joan is not 
known; at this time, perhaps, she asked and obtained 
his pardon for leaving her home so suddenly. It is cer- 
tain that she did not forget her people. A few days 
later, in her favor and at her request, " considering the 
great, high, notable, and profitable service which she has 
rendered and daily renders us in the recovery of our king- 
dom," Charles forever exempted the people of Domremy 
and Greux from all taxes. For centuries the privilege 
lasted, and against the names of the two villages in the 
taxgatherer's book was written, "Nothing, for the sake 
of the Maid. "2 

1 P. ii. 445, Laxart; iii. 198, Lemaistre; v. 141, 266, 267. 

^ P. V. 137; Lepage, /. est-elle Lorraine f 2d dissert. 361. The ques- 
tion of the exemption of Domremy from taxation is complicated with 
that of the political geography of the village, discussed in chapter ii. 
The grant of exemption published by M. Quicherat is copied from a 
vidimus of 1483, formerly preserved in the archives of Greux, but 
which has now disappeared. M. Quicherat mentions a confirmation 
of Louis XV., dated 1723, which sets forth an ordinance of 1650 and 
a decree of 1682. M. Lepage publishes a document of 1584, in 
which is mentioned the grant of 1429, and to which are added ex- 
tracts from the taxgatherer's register in 1481 and 1572-74. In 
these last is to be found the entry noted in the text, " Ndant, k la 
Pucelle." All this evidence makes it reasonably clear that the grant 
is genuine, even though it may not have had full effect in the whole 
village of Domremy, owing to the situation of the village in the 
duchy of Bar. Several theories are possible. First : The exemption 
may have covered all taxes laid by the royal authority, and may 
have been more complete in Greux, and less complete in Domremy. 
Second : The royal officers may not have known what was the precise 
political relation of the village, and may have inserted its name in 
the grant without considering what the effect of the grant would be. 
Third: The exemption may have been intended to affect only that 
part of the village which lay north of the Three Fountains Brook, 
and which was, therefore, contained in the royal domain. 



CHAPTER XII. 

MONTEPILLOY. 

Throughout Saturday night and Sunday morning the 
royal officers labored in preparing for Charles's juiy 17^ 
consecration, and they were so diligent that every- ^'^^• 
thing was made ready "as if it had been ordered a year 
beforehand." ^ The ampulla, or vessel holding the sacred 
oil, carried by a dove to St. Remy at the baptism of 
Clovis, was brought from St. Remy's abbey according to 
custom. Escorted by four of the king's captains armed 
and mounted, the abbot rode his hackney through the 
great west door of the cathedral up to the entrance of the 
choir, where he dismounted and gave the precious relic 
to the archbishop.^ The elaborate ceremony of consecra- 
tion was duly performed. Of the six spiritual peers of 
France, two, the archbishop of Rheims and the bishop 
of Chalons, were actually present; the places of the rest 
were taken by the Scotch bishop of Orleans, John Kirk- 
michael, and by other bishops of the king's suite. The 
duke of Burgundy was the only temporal peer of France 
in existence; he was duly called by the king at arms 
standing before the high altar, and when he did not an- 
swer, his place was taken by the duke of Alen(jon, who 
knighted the king. The other temporal peers, the imagi- 
nary dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy, and counts of 
Flanders, Toulouse, and Champagne, were represented by 
La Tremoille, young Guy of Laval, and other noblemen. 

1 P. iv. 19, Cagny; v. 128. 

2 P. iv. 185, Journ. Siege; 513,iEaeas Sylvius; v. 129. See Leber, 
Ceremonies du sacre, 332. 



158 JOAN OF ARC. 

Kene of Bar, Chaiies's brotlier-in-law, attended the cere- 
mony, though only four months earlier he had been forced 
to acknowledge Henry VI. ^ He was accompanied by 
Robert of Commercy, the freebooting lord to whom the 
men of Domremy used to pay blackmail.^ The king's 
wonderful success had already gained him a host of sup-= 
porters. 

Close to Charles throughout the ceremony stood Joan, 
holding her banner in her hand; "and it was a fine thing 
to see her fair bearing," wrote one of the spectators.^ 
When the ceremony was over, according to one story, 
she burst into tears, and, kneeling at Charles's feet, said 
to him, "Gentle king, now is accomplished the will of 
God, who desired me to raise the siege of Orleans and to 
lead you to this city of Rheims for your consecration, 
showing that you are the true king, and the man to whom 
the kingdom of France belongs." * 

Whether Joan said precisely this or not cannot be 
known, but something of the kind she undoubtedly 
thought, and probably said, being usually outspoken. 
From such a speech as this, from the natural tendency of 
popular opinion after she had been taken and killed, per- 
haps from some later saying of hers in a time of defeat 
and discouragement, grew the legend that she believed her 
mission to have ended at Rheims.^ According to this 

^ The homage was rendered May 5, during the fighting before 
Orleans, of which the news had not yet reached Lorraine. On 
August 3 Rend made a formal disavowal. Lecoy, Rene, ii. 217. 

2 P. iv. 77, J. Chartier; 185, Journ. Siege; 380, Monstrelet. He 
was one of three knights made by Charles in the church. P. iv. 381. 

3 P. V. 129. 

* P. iv. 185, Journ. Siege. 

^ Compare the account of her answer to the archbishop, as given 
by the Bastard, who was an eye-witness, with that given in the Journ. 
Siege. P. iii. 14; iv. 188. The latter account, while correcting the 
Bastard's blunder about Joan's sister, makes Joan say that her 
mission ended at Rheims, a statement of which the Bastard knew 
nothing. 



MONTEPILLOT. 159 

legend, she asked Charles's leave to go back to Dom- 
remy, and remained with him only against her better 
judgment and against the command of her voices. This 
legend is quite unhistorical. After the consecration, 
she was as eager as ever she had been to press forward 
against the English and to drive them from France. 
Her letters, one written that very day, another written 
two or three weeks later, show this plainly, and are full 
of her old confidence in God's help and in herself as his 
messenger. Moreover, it would have been utterly impos- 
sible for Joan to disobey her voices in the manner sup- 
posed. Hers was not a vision which appeared only to 
bid her do this or that, and then left her when she had 
set out to do as she was bid. She communed with her 
voices daily, and in all matters of doubt she appealed to 
them. Twice only,i so far as is known, did she ever dis- 
obey them, and, as we shall see hereafter, the reasons and 
the manner of that disobedience make plain how com- 
pletely in all other matters she followed their commands. 
There is, indeed, an historical basis for the legend just 
mentioned. Though Joan appealed to her voices in time 
of doubt, she did not always get from them concrete ad- 
vice, but often only comfort and encouragement. They 
had bidden her go to Vaucouleurs and to Chinon, they 
had bidden her raise the siege of Orleans and conduct 
Charles to Rheims. Thereafter their commands became 
more general; she was called to drive the English from 
France, but seldom, if ever, was any city marked for 
her attack, or any expedition particularly directed. The 
failure of her later attempts naturally made the people 
about her notice the difference between the earlier and 
the later commands which she professed to receive. This 
difference she may have noticed herself, but the change 
ia the temper of her mind was chiefly caused by her dis- 

* In leaping from the tower at Beaurevoir, and in recanting at St. 
Ouen. 



160 JOAN OP ARC. 

covery that the will of God, though clearly expressed, 
may sometimes be set at naught by the will of man. Her 
companions, on the other hand, naturally unwilling to 
apply this truth, began to say that though she often joked 
about one exploit or another, she never spoke seriously 
of any particular mission after the relief of Orleans and 
the expedition to Rheims.^ This change of feeling, how- 
ever, came about long afterwards. In Rheims she was at 
the very height of her reputation, and, if that were pos- 
sible, surer than ever that the English would be driven 
from France.^ 

There seemed good reason for her belief. Not only 
did great noblemen like Rene of Bar, and plundering 
swash-bucklers like Robert of Commercy, hasten to join 
Charles, but the cities throughout northern France were 
eager to acknowledge him. Four days after his conse- 
cration, messengers brought to him the keys of Laon, a 
city of great strength and importance, close to the ter- 
ritory of the duke of Burgundy ; and many other places 
were ready to follow the example thus set them. To the 
French no exploit seemed too difficult; men talked of 
marching to the English Channel and to Calais, as if it 
were a day's excursion.^ 

To success like this the duke of Burgundy seemed the 
only obstacle, and what the duke of Burgundy would do, 
no man could tell. While Charles was before Troyes, 
he had entered Paris. Standing in a great assembly of 
the people, with the regent Bedford at his side, he caused 
to be rehearsed the story of his father's murder, of which 



* See P. iii. 16, Bastard. 

^ See Rev. Hist,, t. xix. 66. 

3 See P. iv. 20, Cagny; 187, Joum. Siege; 381, 391, Monstrelet; 
letter of J. de Bourbon already cited. The coronation was reported at 
Paris on July 19. P. iv. 453. See, also, P. v. 352, for a letter written 
about this time by the town clerk of Metz, and Beaucourt, ii. 234, n., 
citing Jean Juvdnal and the Chronique de Toumai. 



MONTEPILLOY. 161 

he made another solemn complaint, afterwards compelling 
all the citizens to swear fealty to himself and to Bed- 
ford. As the French entered Kheims, he left Paris and 
sent an embassy to Charles almost before the oaths of his 
Parisian adherents had been registered. This embassy 
had not returned when, in consequence of another inter- 
view with the English, and urged by his sister, Bedford's 
wife, he sent a considerable force to Bedford's assistance, 
at the same time making a truce with Charles. Many of 
his councilors, perhaps most of them, really wished for 
peace, but there was an active minority opposed to it, 
and the duke himself seems to have played a part as 
weak and contemptible as that of his royal cousin. We 
shall see how the skiUful diplomacy of Bedford made 
Philip's vacillation constantly serve the English purpose, 
and how the regent triumphed over the feeble councilors 
of Charles at every turn.i 

Joan's common sense showed her the need of Philip's 
assistance, and her patriotism made her wish that every 
Frenchman should help in saving France. On the very 
day of the coronation she wrote this letter : — 

"High and mighty prince, duke of Burgundy, I, Joan 
the Maid, in the name of the King of Heaven, my right- 
ful and sovereign Lord, bid you and the king of France 
make a good, firm peace, which shall endure. Do each 
of you pardon the other, heartily and wholly, as loyal 
Christians should, and, if you like to fight, go against the 
Saracens. Prince of Burgundy, I pray and beseech and 
beg you as humbly as I may, that you war no more on 
the holy kingdom of France, but at once cause your peo- 
ple who are in any places and fortresses of this holy king- 
dom to withdraw ; and as for the gentle king of France, 

1 Philip came to Paris April 4, and left it April 8 ; returned 
July 10, and went away again July IG. See Journ. Bourg., ann. 1429. 
See, also, Monstrelet, Bk. II. chaps. Ixii., Ixvii., Ixix. ; Stevenson, 
Wars Eng., ii. 104. 



162 JOAN OF ARC. 

he is ready to make peace with you if you are willing, 
saving his honor; and I bid you know, in the name of 
the King of Heaven, my rightful and sovereign Lord, for 
your well-being and your honor and on your life, that 
you will never gain a battle against loyal Frenchmen; 
and that all who war in the holy kingdom of France war 
against King Jesus, King of Heaven and all the earth, 
my rightful and sovereign Lord. With folded hands I 
pray and beg you to fight no battle and wage no war 
against us, neither you, your soldiers, nor your people, 
for whatever number of soldiers you bring against us, 
know of a surety that they shall gain nothing, but it will 
be a great pity to see the great battle and the blood 
which will flow from those who come there against us. 
Three weeks ago I wrote and sent you good letters by a 
herald, bidding you to the king's consecration, which 
takes place to-day, Sunday, the seventeenth of this pres- 
ent month of July, in the city of Rheims, but I have had 
no answer, and have heard no news of the herald. To 
God I commend you, and may He keep you, if it please 
Him, and I pray God to-bring about a good peace." ^ 

No letter is more characteristic of Joan than this. 
Her belief in her mission, her wish to persuade every one 
of it by reason rather than by arms, her broad patriotism 
and want of party feeling, her perfect assurance of suc- 
cess, all clearly appear. So far as is known, Philip made 
no answer, but the story went that he was very desirous 
of seeing Joan, and this was probably true.^ 

The consecration was hardly over when his ambassa- 
dors reached Rheims. Just what terms they proposed is 
uncertain ; it is probable that they suggested im- 
Au^st2, mediate but partial and temporary triices, with a 
^*^"** general peace in the indefinite future, and that 

they tried to delay and to check the royal advance. For 
the moment the enthusiasm was too great for them. On 

1 P. V. 126. * See letter of J. de Bourbon, already cited. 



MONTEPILLOY. 163 

Thursday, July 21, Charles rode to the abbey of St. 
Marcoul, where, according to custom, he touched for the 
King's Evil.^ On Friday he went on to Vailly, and 
having received the keys of Soissons, he entered that city 
on Saturday, July 23. Everywhere he was welcomed 
with great joy.^ 

He was now only about sixty miles from Paris, which 
should have been the object of his operations. Bedford 
had left the city for a few days ; it had but a small garri- 
son, and many of its citizens sympathized with Charles. 
A vigorous advance might have ended the war, but the 
royal council was hopelessly divided and the ambassadors 
of Burgundy were active. Charles halted at Soissons four 
or five days, and received the submission of many neigh- 
boring towns, but he did nothing else. When at length, 
about July 28, the army set out again on its march, it 
did not take the direct road to Paris, but went ahnost 
due south to Chateau Thierry,^ keeping about the same 
distance from the capital. After two days spent at Cha- 
teau Thierry, it proceeded to Provins, which was reached 
on August 2. This town is about sixty miles south of 
Soissons, and about fifty miles southeast of Paris. In 
ten days Charles had made but three marches and was 
only ten miles nearer his objective. Practically nothing 
had been accomplished.* 

It is impossible to discover the precise cause of each of 

^ See Vallet de Viriville, Charles VII., ii. 136, n. Joan is said 
to have ridden before the king in a full suit of plain armor, with 
banner displayed. When she was without her armor, she had the 
state and dress of a knight, — laced shoes, trunks, a short coat, 
and small hat. She wore rich suits of cloth of gold and silk, well 
furred. 

2 P. iv. 20 Cagny; 78, J. Chartier. 

^ The garrison of Chateau Thierry was allowed to join Bedford in 
Paris. P. iv. 381, Monstrelet. 

* See Journ. Bourg., Ann. 1429; P. iv. 453, Fauquemberque ; 20, 21, 
Cagny; 78, J. Chartier. 



164 JOAN OP ARC. 

these extraordinary manoeuvres, but what was the general 
condition of affairs is quite evident. A truce had been 
made with Burgundy, the exact terms of which are un- 
known, but which was to last for a fortnight.^ It may 
have covered some of the places between Soissons and 
Paris, one of which at this time was intrusted by Bed- 
ford to a devoted follower of Philip.^ Again, many of 
Charles's counselors were tired of the expedition and 
anxious to get back to a place of safety; some of these 
may have believed that the best policy was to humor 
Philip, some may have been bought, some may have been 
moved by personal dislike of Joan or of Alen9on. With 
this division of opinion, it is no wonder that the march 
of the royal army was slow and erratic. 

In her simplicity, Joan herself but half understood 
how things were going. Perhaps she was deceived about 
the position of Paris, as she had been deceived about that 
of Orleans three months before. Apparently she was 
told that the truce with Burgundy would bring to pass the 
surrender of Paris within a fortnight, though she hardly 
believed the story. "With truces so made I am not con- 
tent," she wrote to the men of Rheims, "and I do not 
know if I will keep them ; if I do, it will be only to save 
the king's honor." ^ She did not realize how little the 
council regarded either her wishes or the good of France. 

At length, by the utmost effort, the duke of Bedford 
had gathered an army. On July 25 he entered Paris 
with a force brought from England by his uncle, the 
cardinal of Winchester, and raised, it was said, to fight 
the Hussite heretics of Bohemia.* After passing a few 

^ Beaucourt, ii. 404. 

2 Meaux was given to the Bastard of St. Pol. Monstrelet, Bk. II. 
ch. Ixii. 

3 P. V. 140. 

■* P. iv. 81, J. Chartier; 453, Fauquemberque ; Beaiirepaire, Admin, 
ie Normandie, 61. According to a Burgundian chronicler, some 



MONTEPILLOY. 165 

days in the capital, and thus assuring himself of the 
fidelity of its magistrates, he marched against Charles. 
He did not wish especially for battle, but felt the need 
of showing a bold front to his enemies, lest his French 
subjects should believe he had lost heart altogether. ^ 

Meantime, at Provins, there was quarreling and con- 
fusion in the royal council. After a short stay ^^^^^ 2-7 
in the place, the party of peace got the upper ■^^^* 
hand, and orders were issued to cross the Seine at Bray 
and retreat to the Loire. Some arrangement had been 
reached for a conference with Philip. Bedford was ad- 
vancing, and it was thought best to trust to diplomacy 
rather than to risk a battle. During the night, however, 
an Anglo-Biu'gundian force seized Bray and held it so 
strongly that a battle was needed to force the passage of 
the Seine. Thereupon Alencjon, Laval, and the party 
of war took heart, and on that very day the army turned 
again and marched on Paris. ^ 

Though the disgraceful cowardice and folly of La Tre- 
moille and his followers were thus defeated by the super- 
serviceable zeal of some Anglo-Burgundian captain, all 
these marchings and counter-marchings and the hopeless 
indecision of the royal council were ruining the spirit of 
the army. The country people were still wild with de- 
light at the coming of the king, and crowded to meet him 
as he passed by. Joan was riding between the Bastard 
and the archbishop of Rheims. " What good people they 
are," she said. "I never saw any other people who re- 
joiced so much over the coming of so noble a king. I 

of Bedford's English soldiers carried a banner on which were blazoned 
a distaff and spindle, with hanks of yarn, and the motto, " Come on, 
my pretty girl." Livre des Trahisons, 198. 

^ According to one account, Bedford left Paris August 3. Eev. 
Hist., t. xix. 75. 

2 P. iv. 79, J. Chartier; 188, Journ. Siege. See Gilles de Roye, in 
Chron. Belg. ined., i. 207; Jadart, J. a Reims, 118; Stevenson, Wars 
Eng., ii. 101; Journ. Bourg., ann. 1429. 



166 JOAN OP ARC. 

would that wlien I die I were so happy as to be buried in 
this place." "Joan, when do you expect to die? " asked 
the archbishop, who had no great belief in her mission, 
but was curious to hear what she would say. " When it 
shall please God," she answered, "for I know no more 
of the time and the place than you do. Would that it 
pleased God my creator to let me depart at this time and 
lay down my arms, and go to serve my father and mother 
in keeping their sheep with my brothers, for they would 
be very glad to see me."^ Even on Joan herself the in- 
decision and the delay was beginning to tell, though she 
kept as brave a face as she could. 

The wanderings of Charles seem to have puzzled Bed- 
ford, who on August 7 found himself at Montereau, 
rather farther from Paris than was the king. On that 
day he published a manifesto in the form of a letter to 
Charles. It was constructed with some skill: Charles 
was charged with receiving the help of a loose and disor- 
derly woman wearing men's clothes, and of an apostate 
and seditious friar, "both, according to Holy Scripture, 
things abominable to God." The letter begged the king 
to have pity on the poor people, and suggested a meeting 
at some place near by, to which Charles might come, 
with the disorderly woman and the apostate friar afore- 
said, and all the perjured rascals of his train. There 
Bedford would discuss terms of peace, an unfeigned 
peace, not like that which Charles once made at this very 
Montereau, just before he foully murdered the duke of 
Burgundy. The letter closed by challenging Charles to 
single combat, and with an appeal to the Almighty. ^ 
Having dispatched this missive, Bedford hastened to 
interpose himself between the French army and Paris, 
taking care that the city's gates should be closed and 
guarded.^ 

1 P. iii. 14, Bastard. ^ Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. Ixv. 

' See Journ. Bourg., ann. 1429; P. iv. 21, Cagny; 46, Berri. 



MONTEPILLOT. 167 

On August 11 Bedford's letter was received by Charles 
at Crepy-en-Valois, about tbirty-five miles north- ^ug_ ii_ 
east of Paris. 1 An embassy, made up from the ^^' ^*^^' 
party of peace, had just been sent to Philip at Arras, 
and so the j)arty of action was in control of the expedi- 
tion. On August 12 and 13 the army marched slowly on 
Paris, coming within twenty miles of the capital. Bed- 
ford was nearer still, and was manoeuvring to get into a 
strong position, not intending to attack the French. On 
Sunday, August 14, the two armies came face to face at 
Montepilloy, not far from Senlis. It was near evening, 
and after a skirmish they both encamped for the night. 
The next morning the French reconnoitred Bedford's 
position, and found it very strong. A lake and ^^g, 15^ 
a stream were in his rear, which might have ■^'^^^• 
proved his ruin had he been defeated, but which pre- 
vented an attack from that direction. During the night 
he had carefully covered his flanks and his front with 
earthworks and with stout stakes, which the English 
archers used to carry, and which were thrust deep into 
the ground to break the charge of cavalry. His main 
body was English, his right wing composed of Picards 
sent to him by Philip of Burgundy. Above his host 
floated the banners of England and France. 

The French army was formed in four divisions, the 
advance-guard, commanded by Alen^on ; the centre, com- 
manded by Rene of Bar; the rear, with which were La 
Tremoille and Charles himself ; and a large body of skir- 
mishers under Joan, the Bastard, and La Hire. Although 
the French were more niunerous than the English, Bed- 
ford's position was so strongly covered that a direct at- 
tack seemed too dangerous, and the French attempted to 
draw the English out into the open country. Their army 
advanced until it was but two bowshots from Bedford's 
front, and then he was solemnly defied. He had no 
1 P. iv. 46, Bern. 



168 JOAN OF AKC. 

intention of leaving his position, however, and stood 
firm. Both on foot and on horseback, the French 
knights came right up to the English works, and so 
taunted and harassed tlieir defenders that some of these 
rushed out. Thereupon the French fell back, and being 
pursued, returned to the attack in such force that more 
of the English were drawn out to the rescue of their out- 
numbered countrymen. Through the long, hot, and dusty 
day these skirmishes went on with varying fortune and 
considerable loss to both sides, for men's passions were 
roused, and no quarter was given. The English disci- 
pline was good enough to prevent a general sortie, and 
the French accomplished nothing. 

In the afternoon they brought up two field-pieces, 
weapons hardly yet in common use, and placed them so 
as to enfilade the English line. These caused some loss 
to the English, and there was considerable danger that 
their army would be thrown into disorder, but Bedford's 
word and example held his troops steady, until a party 
of his Picard horsemen fell suddenly upon the feebly 
supported battery and captured it. Later still, the 
French skirmishers retreated upon the main body, and 
Bedford was notified that he might come out and set his 
army in battle order without being disturbed, an invita- 
tion which he declined. As it grew dusk, the French 
retired to their quarters, and the king, who seemed easily 
satisfied in the matter of fighting, went to Crepy.^ 

Early Tuesday morning the French retreated farther, 
Ang. 16- hoping that Bedford would follow them. Some 
28, 1429. pf }jjg captains were for doing so, but the regent 
had accomplished his object. As soon as he was clear 
of the French he retreated to Senlis, and from there to 
Paris, having faced without disaster a superior French 

1 See P. iv. 21, Cagny; 81, J. Chartier; 193, Joum. Siege; 387, 
Monstrelet; 434, Wavrin; Cochon, Chron. Normande, 301; Livre des 
Trahisons, 198; Luce, 341. 



MONTEPILLOY. 169 

force, having encouraged his own troops, and shaken the 
popular faith in Joan. About noon the French captains 
learned what he had done. It is quite plain that they 
should have followed him up with vigor, and that his 
retreating army, shut in between Paris and a superior 
force of the enemy, would have been in peril; but the 
spirit which had triumphed at Patay was pretty much 
gone. A detachment was sent to occupy Senlis, the rest 
of the army joined Charles at Crepy, and on Thursday, 
August 18, proceeded to Compi^gne, fifty miles from 
Paris. Its inhabitants had sent its keys to the king, and 
the place was nearer Arras, where Philip of Burgundy 
held his court. ^ 

Several days were spent in Compiegne, greatly to the 
distress of Joan, who knew the importance of rapid 
movements, and saw the troops becoming further per- 
plexed and dispirited. On August 23, with Alen^on 
and a considerable force, she left Compiegne for Senlis.^ 
On the 25th they took St. Denis, and thus established 
themselves at the very gates of Paris,^ but they could 
not persuade the king to follow them, and they left the 
party of peace in full control of the council. Shortly 
after his return from Montepilloy, Bedford had gone 
back with most of his soldiers to Normandy, where his 
power was threatened by revolt within and by attack 
from without.* His agents in Paris were active in 
strengthening the fortifications, and in taking fresh oaths 
of the people, but it is probable that his chief reliance 
was on the duke of Burgundy and the duke's negotia- 
tions. 

1 P. iv. 23, Cagny. 

2 For the terms of the capitulation of Senlis, see Bernier, Monu' 
mens inedits de Vliist. de France, 18. 

3 P. iv. 24, Cagny; Joum. Bourg., ann. 1429; Coehon, Chron. 
Normande, 302. 

* See Stevenson, Wars Eng., ii. 111. 



170 JOAN OF AKC. 

This reliance was not in vain. At Arras there had 
been much talk among Charles's ambassadors, the duke 
of Burgundy and his council, and the ambassadors of the 
duke of Savoy, who was honestly trying to play the peace- 
maker. Not much was accomplished, but Philip agreed 
to send envoys to Charles at Compiegne, in the mean time 
accepting from Bedford the office of governor of Paris. ^ 
The negotiations were resumed at Compiegne, accord- 
ingly, just as Joan left the place, and after some dicker- 
ing the party of peace triumphed decisively by securing 
a general truce, which was signed on August 28. It 
covered all the country north of the Seine from Nogent, 
sixty miles above Paris, to the sea, except the cities and 
fortresses on the river at which it could be crossed. 
Why the exception was made does not clearly appear; 
perhaps because Charles, in returning to the Loire, must 
cross the Seine at some one of these places; perhaps 
because the party of peace did not dare openly to give up 
all hope of taking Paris, which city the treaty expressly 
permitted Philip to relieve. Between the duke and 
Charles the truce was to begin at once, and was to last 
until Christmas. The English, if they wished, might 
have the benefit of it at any time. During its continu- 
ance Charles might not receive the submission of a city, 
however much it should wish to acknowledge him. The 
delusive hope of a peace with Burgundy seems to have 
taken possession of some of the king's advisers who were 
not mere creatures of La Tremoille, and it is probable 
that a real majority of the council favored the truce, 
though Alen^on and others were bitterly opposed to it.^ 

* See Beancourt, ii. 408, 413; Rev. Historique, t. xix. 79. 
^ See Plancher, Hist. Bourgogne, iv., Ixxviii. et seq. ; Quieherat, 
^ouveaux documents sur Charles VII. et J. ; Beaucourt, ii. 410, n. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE ATTACK ON PARIS. 

The truce should have ended the campaign, for by it 
Charles had effectually prevented himself from Aug. 28 
carrying on a successful war. An attacking ^^^^• 
army can do little when it allows its enemies to choose its 
point of attack and to limit its field of operations. Be- 
fore deciding, however, that the truce was certainly dis- 
advantageous to the French, we must consider what would 
have been their chance of success if they had pushed the 
war with vigor, and what chance of a lasting peace with 
Philip they gained by granting him an armistice. 

It is almost impossible to exaggerate the moral effect 
of Joan's campaigns about Orleans and of her march to 
Rheims. All Europe was filled with wonder. Foreign 
princes were eager to have particular news of her. Col- 
lects praying for her were used in remote parts of France. 
All the way from Spain came letters asking her to decide 
which of the three claimants to the papacy had the right- 
ful title. ^ After the fall of Troyes, all places except 
Paris had been eager to recognize Charles. Even after 
his erratic march had been checked at Montepilloy, while 
the king was at Compiegne, town after town had acknow- 
ledged him and some great nobles had joined him; Beau- 
vais had driven out Cauchon, its bishop count, a violent 
Anglo-Burgundian,2 and Philip was quite justified in 
seeking a truce and in trying at all hazards to prevent 
such desertions for the future. "In truth," says a Bur- 

1 See P. V. 98, 104, 114, 131, 270, 347, 353. 

2 P. iv. 85, J. Chartier; 190, Journ. Siege. 



172 JOAN OF ARC. 

gundian chronicler, "if he [Charles] had come with aJ\ 
his force to St. Quentin, Corbie, Amiens, Abbeville, and 
many other strong towns and strong castles, the larger 
part of the people were ready to receive him as their lord, 
and desired nothing in the world but to obey him and to 
open their gates." ^ The entreaties made to him by the 
men of Kheims, when they heard that he thought of re- 
turning to the Loire, were piteous. Let him be steadfast 
with diligence, said they, for his sake and his kingdom's; 
let him defend them from Burgundy and his followers, 
who are very strong and already boast what they will do.^ 

It must be borne in mind, also, that Bedford's hold 
on Normandy was much disturbed. Several French cap- 
tains carried on there a guerrilla warfare, having the 
sympathy of some of the people. Two or three places 
had been actually taken, and plots were made to deliver 
Rouen.^ Had Charles availed himself of the influence 
of Joan, the splendid confidence of his own soldiers, and 
the loyalty of the country people, at the same time offer- 
ing to Philip reasonable terms of immediate peace, it is 
likely that the English power in northern France would 
have disappeared in 1429 as quickly as it did twenty 
years later. 

If the truce and the abandonment of his campaign had 
assured to Charles a reasonable peace with the duke of 
Burgundy, then, in spite of all drawbacks, much good 
would have been accomplished; but peace was highly 
improbable. Several of Philip's councilors wished a 
peace of some sort sincerely enough, though the terms 
they asked would have dismembered the French mon- 
archy, but Bedford's supporters opposed any peace what- 
soever, and on the whole their influence prevailed. At 

» P, iv. 391, Monstrelet. See Rev. Hist. t. xix. 74. 
^ Jadart, /. a Reims, 118. 

8 Chron. Puc., ed. Vallet de Viriville, 339; Cochon, Chron. Nor* 
mande, 302; Chdruel, Hist, de Rouen, 84. 



THE ATTACK ON PARIS. 173 

about this time there was laid before Philip's council a 
memorandum urging that the English alliance should be 
maintained in order to escape from the wickedness and 
malice of the French. The memorandum suggested that 
the duke of Brittany should be bought by the county of 
Poitou, the constable by La Tremoille's property and 
other estates, so that the Dauphin (as he was styled) 
might be driven into Languedoc. It is not known if 
this memorandum was approved by the council, but the 
councilor who prepared it was Philip's trusted agent, and 
was soon sent to represent his master at the coronation of 
Henry VI. in England.^ There is a satisfaction in know- 
ing that it was proposed to betray the favorite to the 
constable. As has been observed, La Tremoille's posi- 
tion was very precarious, and he kept his power only so 
long as everybody else was at odds. 

When the same councilor, Lannoy, was in England, 
he caused another memorandum to be prepared and pre- 
sented to the council of Henry VI. By it the English 
king was urged to take part in the proposed negotiations 
for peace, securing meanwhile a friendly cardinal from 
Rome to act as umpire in the dispute between himself 
and Charles. The French were very proud, so the 
memorandum set forth, and the negotiations would cer- 
tainly fail ; while they were going on, the English were 
advised to gather a large army, to give the duke of Bur- 
gundy an increase of territory, and to buy at a suitable 
price some of the duke's councilors, probably including 
Lannoy himself. It was further suggested that the duke 
of Brittany and the constable should be induced to enter 
the English service, and that the foreign powers should 
be won over by marriage or otherwise. These papers 
show plainly that, at this time, there was not the slightest 
chance of securing by negotiation and truce a lasting 
peace with Burgundy.^ 

1 Beaucourt, ii. 415. ^ Beaucourt, ii. 416. 



174 JOAN OF ARC. 

Very soon after the truce was signed, Charles went to 
Senlis, a movement which brought him nearer Paris, but 
also nearer the Loire. Alen9on and Joan had 
Sept". 7, been for a week at St. Denis, skirmishing about 
•^*^^' the walls of Paris, seeking the best place for an 
attack, and smuggling manifestoes into the city to arouse 
the Armagnac partisans and to discourage the friends of 
the English. To take the city by assault would call for 
the efforts of the whole army, and they earnestly wished 
for reinforcements, and for the presence of the king to 
encourage the troops.^ 

As Charles did not come, Alen(;on went to Senlis on 
September 1, and not improbably at that time first 
learned of the truce. Its terms, however, permitted an 
attack upon Paris, and if the capital once were taken, 
truce or no truce, the English power would fall. Charles 
promised to come to St. Denis, and Alen^on returned to 
make ready for him, but the wretched king broke his 
word and stayed at Senlis. On September 5 the duke 
went there a second time, succeeded in overbearing the 
party of peace, and on Wednesday, September 7, dragged 
Charles to St. Denis. Joan and all her companions were 
much encouraged, and every one said, "She will put the 
king into Paris, if he will let her."^ It is probable, 
however, that Charles had already decided to retreat. 

On the very evening of the king's arrival at St. Denis, 
the duke of Alen^on, with Joan, young Guy of Laval, 
and other captains, made a vigorous reconnoissance, rid- 
ing up to the gates of the city ; they then encamped in 
a village called La Chapelle, close to Paris. Thursday, 

1 P. iv. 25, Cagny; 47, Berri; 85, J. Chartier; 463, Joum. Bourg. 
and Joum. Bmirg., ann. 1429; P. iv. 500, Windecken. See Grasso- 
reille, Chapitre de Notre Dame, in Mem. soc. hist. Paris, t. ix. 176 et 
seq. 

2 P. iv. 25, Cagny ; 86, J. Chartier ; 199, Joum. Siege j Beaucourt, 
ii. 239, note 1. 



THE ATTACK ON PAKIS. 175 

September 8, was the birthday of our Lady, then and 
now a great festival in the Catholic Church. It ggp^^ g^ 
seems that Joan had some scruple about attack- ^*^^- 
ing Paris on a holy day, though this is not clear; but 
the captains were eager to advance, perhaps fearing lest 
the wretched king should be persuaded to desert them 
before anything was accomplished. Joan's voices did not 
forbid, and so she went forward with the army ; having 
made up her mind to storm the city, though the captains 
would have been content with a vigorous skirmish. ^ 

At eight o'clock the army marched, leaving the king 
safe at St. Denis. Joan, together with old Gaucourt 
and the marshal Rais, advanced against the gate of St. 
Honore, while Alen^on with the reserves covered the 
rear of the attacking party agamst a possible sally of the 
garrison from one of the other gates of the city. So 
heavy was the fire of the artillery placed on the walls 
that the duke was obliged to shelter himself behind a 
hill, near the site of the present church of St. Roch. 
About midday the assault began. The boulevard, or 
earthwork, which covered the gate of St. Honore, was 
taken without much trouble, and Joan came to the deep 
fosse, filled with water, which surrounded the city's walls. 
Besiegers and defenders were now within hailing dis- 
tance; Joan summoned the Parisians to surrender, and 
they answered her with shouts of defiance, calling her by 
all the foul names in the language. On both sides the 
firing was incessant, and many of both parties were killed 
and wounded. The peaceable citizens of Paris, mean- 
while, were in wild terror. Men ran through the streets, 
crying that all was lost, and that the enemy was already 
inside the gates. The churches, filled for the festival, 
were abandoned, and every man hid himself in his own 
house. Within a few years Paris had seen horrible 

1 P. i. 57, 146, 147, J.'s test.; iv. 198, Journ. Siege ; Joum. Bourg., 
ed. Tuetey, 244. 



176 JOAN OF ARC. 

massacres both of Armagnacs and Burgundians, and the 
soldiers of Charles had long been ui the worst repute.^ 

For all the bravery of the French, the water in the 
fosse was so deep that they could not get at the walls. 
Joan and Rais, accordingly, ordered it to be filled by 
throwing fagots and great blocks of wood into the water; 
wagon-loads of these had been brought, but the fosse was 
so deep that it could not be crossed. This failure of the 
French encouraged the garrison and it fired the harder, 
shooting Joan's standard-bearer through the head, and 
wounding Joan herseK in the leg with the bolt of an 
arblast. As at the Tourelles, she would not allow a 
retreat, but still urged that the fosse should be filled, and 
that the troops should advance to the assault. It was 
growing dark, the soldiers were tiied, and Gaucourt, who 
inclined to the party of peace, was easily discouraged. 
He tried to induce Joan to withdraw, but, wounded 
though she was, she refused. Night came on. Alen^on 
saw that nothing could be done until the next day, 
and sent a message to Joan; still she did not budge. 
At last he rode up himself, and with Gaucourt's help 
dragged her from a dry ditch where she kept her post. 
She was mounted, and brought back to La Chapelle, but 
as she rode away from the field she persisted in saymg, 
"By my staff, the place would have been taken." ^ 

That Paris could have been taken by an army which 
had wasted its courage in delays, whose movements were 
cramped by a partial truce, whose leaders were quarrel- 
ing, and whose king had issued orders to retreat before 
permitting an attack,^ may well be doubted. On Thurs- 

1 P. iv. 26, Cagny; 86, J. Chartier; 456, Fauquemberque ; 465, 
Journ. Bourg. ; Grassoreille, 176. On September 7, the day before 
the assault, a forced loan was exacted from the churchmen and 
burghers of Paris, in order to resist the French attack. P. iv. 456. 

2 P. iv. 27, Cagny. 

• Definite arrangements for the abandonment of the campaign were 
made September 7. Beaucourt, ii. 239, note 1. 



THE ATTACK ON PARIS. 177 

day night a retreat was probably necessary. But that 
Paris could have been taken, even as late as Thursday 
morning, if the king and his councilors had really wished 
its capture, is almost certain. "If any one in the king's 
command had been as manly as Joan," said a Burgundian 
chronicler, "Paris would have been in danger of capture, 
but all the rest disagreed about the capture."^ 

Early on Friday morning, in spite of her wounds, 
Joan sent for Alen^on, and begged him to sound ggp^. 9_ 
the trumpets for an advance, saying that she ^^' ^*^- 
would never leave until she had taken the city. Alen- 
9on was ready to move, and some of the captains agreed 
with him, but others differed. While they were talking, 
Kene of Bar and the coimt of Clermont came from 
Charles, and ordered Joan and Alen^on to return at once 
to St. Denis. La Tremoille and the party of peace had 
again got control of the king.^ 

Distressed as they were, they had to obey, and the 
wounded girl rode back with the duke. Even at this 
time she would not give up all hope. That part of 
Paris which lay south of the Seine might have walls 
less strong than those near the gate of St. Honore. 
Alen^on had built a bridge across the river near St. 
Denis, and the two made ready to pass it, hoping, per- 
haps, to enter Paris by surprise. This movement was to 
be made on Saturday, the day after their return to St. 
Denis, but on Friday night some of the council caused 
the bridge to be broken without the duke's knowledge, 
though he was lieutenant-general of the army.^ In this 
state of discipline there was danger in staying within 

^ Gilles de Roye, in Chron. Belg. ined., i. 208. 

2 P. iv. 27, Cagny. See 47, Berri; Cochon, Chron. Normande, 306. 

8 P. iv. 28, Cagny. According to Beaucourt, ii. 239, the count of 
Clermont was given the military command in northern France, by 
commission dated September 7. How far this commission superseded 
Alencjon's at once, and how far it was intended to operate only after 
the duke's departure, is not clear. 



178 JOAN OF ARC. 

reach of the enemy. Bedford had again drawn near, and 
the duke of Burgundy was making ready to march on 
Paris. ^ There was a little more wrangling in the coun- 
cil, and then, on Tuesday, September 13, Charles broke 
camp at St. Denis, passed to the northward of Paris, and 
began his retreat to the Loire. On that day he sent a 
manifesto to the men of Rheims, who had received him 
gladly less than two months before, and who had repeat- 
edly begged him not to abandon them. He announced 
that he was going to make a real treaty of peace with 
Burgundy, with whom he had already made a truce.^ 
In the mean time, so he said, he would not eat up the 
country with his army, but would return to the Loire 
and there gather a large force, to be used in case the 
treaty of peace was not made.^ There is no reason to 
suppose that the men of Rheims believed these state- 
ments ; they knew perfectly that Charles was deliberately 
abandoning them to the English and to Philip, and they 
doubtless were thankful that he had not offered their city 
to the duke, as he had offered Compiegne, probably even 
while he was living in the place.* 

Joan did not wish to leave St. Denis, where her voices 
bade her stay, though they did not forbid her to follow 
the army, after it had made ready to retreat. Before 
she left, she offered to the saint her arms — a full suit of 
white armor and a sword. She made this votive offering, 
she said, as men at arms were wont to do when they 
recovered from their wounds; she made it to St. Denis, 
because that was the war-cry of France. Though her 

* Bedford was at Vernon on August 27 and September 1, meaning 
to attack Charles. See Stevenson, Wars Eng., ii. 115, 118 ; Journ. 
Bourg., ann. 1429. 

2 On September 20 Philip left Hesdin and traveled to Paris at the 
head of three or four thousand armed men. He was received in great 
state at Senlis by Cliarles's lieutenants. Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. IxxiiL 

8 Beaucourt, iii. 518. 

* See P. V. 174 ; Sorel, La prise de J. devant Compiegne, 156. 



THE ATTACK ON PARIS. 179 

faith was still strong, and her spirit unbroken, yet her 
final disappointment began with the retreat from Paris. 
Before that time she had met with many obstacles, but had 
overcome them; thereafter her efforts generally failed. ^ 

The retreat of the army from St. Denis to the Loire 
was safe and speedy.^ On Wednesday, September 21, 
Charles dined at Gien, having marched more than one 
hundred and fifty miles in eight days. "Thus," says a 
chronicler, "was broken the will of the Maid and of the 
king's army."^ 

1 P. i. 67, 179, 260, J.'s test. 

2 The Marne was crossed at Lagny, the Seine at Bray, and the 
Yonne near Sens. P. iv. 89. 

8 P. iv. 29, Cagny. This author, a follower of Alengon, says that 
the retreat was disorderly. Probably, however, his language merely 
expresses his disgust that any retreat was made. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ST. PIERRE LE MOUSTIER AND LA CHARITE. 

On the arrival of the army at Gien, Its leaders were 
divided in counsel and quarreling bitterly. For the 
moment, La Tremoille's triumph was complete. 
October, He had destroyed the enthusiasm of the nobles 
and the people, by the truce with Burgundy he 
had made war impossible, and he had prepared a long 
series of profitless embassies and negotiations, under cover 
of which he could misrule France as he pleased. Alen(;on 
had been outmanoeuvred in the royal council, and was de- 
prived of his command by the appointment of the count 
of Clermont as lieutenant-general in his place. ^ Urged by 
Joan, perhaps, the duke made a last attempt to accomplish 
something with the force at hand or with a fresh levy of 
troops. 

Normandy was the seat of the English power in the 
north of France. Elsewhere they only held fortresses in 
a hostile country, but in Normandy they had tried to 
establish their government with some little measure of 
success. If their control of the province was disturbed, 
they would be taken in the rear, and unable to act with 
vigor against the French elsewhere. The enthusiasm 
excited by the march on Rheims was felt even in Nor- 
mandy, and its people, liking the English rule none too 
well, were encouraged to hope for deliverance. The 
French partisan leaders were now close to the Norman 
border, and they were planning surprises of this fortress 

1 Valletde Viriville, Charles VII., ii. 121, 122; Beaucourt, ii. 239; 
iii. 518 ; P. iv. 30, Cagny. 



ST. PIERSE LE MOUSTIER AND LA CHARITE. 181 

and that; the whole province was uneasy and ready 
for a rising. Alen^on wished to take advantage of this 
state of affairs, and to support with a regular army the 
guerrilla warfare just about to break out. He was ready 
to undertake the levying of troops, and he asked that 
Joan might accompany him in his proposed expedition. 
The request was refused; La Tremoille and his party 
would not let Alenc^on become the leader of the French 
people in their struggle against the English. The duke 
went in disgust to his estates and stayed there, never 
again to serve with Joan.^ The army, which had left 
Gien in high spirits three months before, was at once dis- 
banded. ^ 

For several days the court stayed in Gien. At the 
end of September Charles journeyed toward Selles, 
while the queen set out from Bourges to meet him there. 
In her train went Margaret la Touroulde, a reputable 
woman about forty years old, the wife of an officer of the 
treasury. Joan had left Gien with Charles, and from 
Selles she was sent on to stay with Margaret in her house 
at Bourges.^ There she passed three weeks, almost con- 
stantly in the companionship of her hostess, going with 
her to confession, to mass, and to matins, sleeping with 
her often at night, talking freely of her own life since 
leaving Domremy. 

Joan's failure before Paris had not shaken her trust in 

^ Alengon did carry on a little campaign in his own duchy during 
the late autumn. Godefroy, Charles VII., 40. 

2 P. iv. 30, Cagny; 48, Berri; v. 71, Martial d'Auvergne. For a 
supposed campaign of Richemont's in Normandy, probably apocry- 
phal, see Cosneau, Richemont, 174; Bib. Ec. Char., t. xlvii. 560; t. xlix. 
266. 

8 P. iii. 86, M. la Touroulde. Margaret says that Charles came to 
Bourges himself; but this seems improbable. According to Vallet 
de v., mss. itin., he was at Sully September 26, at Selles October 1, at 
Loches October 10, and at Selles again, October 19. See, also, Bib, 
Ec. Char., t. viii. 144. 



182 JOAN OF ARC. 

God, her voices, and her mission. That she could have 
taken Paris, if she had been properly supported, she did 
not doubt; she had grieved bitterly over the cowardly 
retreat of the army, but she never wavered in her belief 
that God had sent her to save France. Her voices no 
longer directed her plan of campaign, but they were con- 
stantly with her, encouraging her in every struggle with 
the enemy. Thus supported, it is no wonder that she 
was almost always cheerful and sanguine. 

She had been disappointed by the failure of Alen9on's 
projDosed expedition to Normandy, but this had not been 
directly commanded by her voices, and when it failed, 
she wished to fight elsewhere. The council, always vacil- 
lating, allowed her to do so.^ Its choice of the object of 
attack was quite characteristic. The truces with Bur- 
gundy protected all the territory in which the campaign 
had lately been carried on,^ while the refusal to allow 
Alencjon to march on Normandy made it impossible to 
attack that province. Moreover, Charles did not wish 
to irritate the duke of Burgundy or even the English, 
since his ambassadors were then at St. Denis with those 
of England and Burgundy, discussing terms of peace.^ 
Neither England nor Burgundy had any intention of 
making peace, it is true. Even La Tremoille hardly 
wished it; but he did wish negotiation, and he had to 
keep up appearances. The council, therefore, was com- 
pelled to find an enemy for Joan whom neither England 
nor Burgmidy seriously cared to protect. 

At the western frontier of the duchy of Burgundy, on 
the Loire and the AUier, were several fortified towns 
held by soldiers of fortime. One of these men, Perrinet 
Grasset or Gressart, had risen high in the world by the 
skilKul exercise of his trade. Originally a mason, he 
had entered the service of Burgundy and had soon come 

1 P. i. 109, J.'s test. 

2 See Delisle, Nouveaux Documents. * Beaucourt, ii. 412. 



ST. PIERRE LE MOUSTIER AND LA CHARITE. 183 

to the command of a well-disciplined body of cut-throats. 
In 1423 he made his fortune by the capture from the 
French of La Charite on the Loire, a strong fortress in 
which he lived for more than ten years. Nominally sub- 
ject to the duke, he had plundered Frenchmen and Bur- 
gundians with reasonable impartiality, and had constantly 
refused to observe the truces made from time to time be- 
tween Charles and Philip. Shortly after his capture of 
La Charite he had seized La Tremoille, as the favorite 
was going on an embassy to the duke, and had exacted 
a large ransom. He had become a terror to the nobles 
as well as to the common people of Berry, and even to 
the citizens of Bourges. When Philip sought to keep 
him within bounds, he was wont to threaten the duke that 
he would sell out his band and his fortress to some other 
master. 1 

Perrinet Grasset had a niece who was his ward. In 
1426 her hand was given to a man after her uncle's own 
heart. Francis of Surienne, commonly called Francis 
of Aragon, was a Spanish nobleman of family, uncle 
of Rodrigo Borgia, who was afterwards Pope Alexander 
VI. Having come to France to earn his living, he had 
entered the service of Burgundy, and had been made 
bailiff of St. Pierre le Moustier, a fortified town about 

^ For Grasset, see Quicherat, Rod. de Villandrando, 58 ; Villaret, 
Campagnes des Anglais, 109; Livre des Trahisons, in Chron. Belg. 
ined., ii. 131 ; Monstrelet, Bk. II. eh. x. ; Plancher, Hist. Bourgogne, 
iv. 61, 61, 78, 106, 119, 161, 194; Vallet de V., Charles VI I. , i. 396, 
482; ii. 301, n.; Beaucourt, ii. 128, 373; Cosneau, Richemont, 193; Les 
la Tremoille, 165; Berri, in Godefroy, Charles VII., 382; Beaurepaire, 
Admin, de Normandie, 27; Oliv. de la Marche, Bk. I. ch. iii. ; Canat, 
Documents inedits sur Vhist. de Bourgogne, 306, 319, 325, 327, 330, 361, 
365, 369; Frdminville, Ecorcheurs en Bourgogne, 29. In 1427 La 
Charity and " the other places which Perrinet Gressart holds " were 
excluded from the armistice between Philip and Charles. Appar- 
ently St. Pierre le Moustier was included. Plancher, Hist. Bouv' 
gogne, iv., Ixxiii. 



184 JOAN OF AEC. 

thirty-five miles from La Charite. He had entered into 
a sort of partnership with Grasset, and supported himself 
and his followers in Grasset's fashion.^ For the real 
purpose of the war, that is, the expulsion of the English, 
the capture of St. Pierre and La Charite would be al- 
most useless. The French approach to northern France 
had been so well secured, that these fortresses were not a 
serious menace to the communications of an army march- 
ing from Bourges upon Paris, as they might have been 
before the campaign just finished. Undoubtedly, their 
capture would be a great relief to all the people of Berry, 
and La Tremoille had his old grudge against Grasset. 
The duke of Burgundy probably cared little whether 
Grasset kept La Charite or not, and seems to have had 
no intention of protecting his nominal lieutenants. For 
these reasons, the council determined to send Joan against 
the two places. If she were successful, no harm would be 
done, and La Tremoille would have satisfied his grudge; 
if she were unsuccessful, her influence would be almost 
gone, and the favorite would be rid of a danger which 
threatened his control of France. 

Some general must accompany Joan, and La Tremoille 
chose his man with excellent discretion. Charles of 
Albret was his own half-brother, the head of a great Gas- 
con house, and allied to the blood royal. In early life 
he had played fast and loose with English and French, 
then he had attached himself to Charles VII- , and by so 
doing had got a good share of the favors which the king 

^ Surienne was bom about 1398, d. 1462. G. Chastellain, iv. 233, n. 
See, also, ii. 261, 265, 266, 298, 305, 314; Canat, 221, 223, 226, 229, 
232, 330, 337,369; Stevenson, Wars Eng., i. 275; ii. 427 (620); Plan- 
eher, iv. 163; Villaret, 37; Fr^minville, 218. His unprovoked at- 
tack on Foug^res in 1449, when he was in the English service and a 
Knight of the Garter, brought on the struggle which resulted in the 
final overthrow of the English. Francis sent back his garter, left the 
English service, and entered that of Spain. Later he held a post 
under Louis XI. 



ST. PIERRE LE MOUSTIER AND LA CHARITE. 185 

used to distribute among his favorites. He was a faith- 
ful follower of La Tremoille, and had sat in the council 
which voted the truce with Burgundy. Like all men of 
his station, he had seen a good deal of military service, 
and he had fought with Joan at Patay.^ 

The failure of the attack on Paris had lessened Joan's 
renown, and Frenchmen no longer looked to her with the 
devotion they had felt three months before. Her name, 
however, had still some attraction, and with its help a 
force was got together before the end of October. In 
the mean time, she lived at Bourges, and the people of 
the city, especially the women, tried to gratify the curi- 
osity about her which existed in spite of her diminished 
reputation. The story got abroad in the town that she 
was not afraid to fight, because she knew by revelation 
that she could not be kiUed. Joan told the people that 
she had no better chance of safety than the other soldiers. 
The women used to come to the house of Margaret la 
Touroulde, bringing their beads and the like, which they 
begged Joan to touch, as if she had been a saint ; but she 
laughed at them, and said to her hostess, "Do you touch 
them, and they will be just as good as if I had done it 
myself." The king had the grace to supply her liberally 
with money, and she spent it in alms, saying that she was 
sent for the consolation of the poor and needy. ^ 

Toward the end of October she left Bourges, and 
marched with Albret against St. Pierre le Moustier. 
This town taken by the Burgundians in 1422, was of 
some little importance, though not very large, and stood 
about two miles east of the river Allier, at the edge of a 

^ Albret was second cousin of Charles VII. (Beaucourt, i. 375); 
ht died 1471. At about this time he was made lieutenant-general of 
the forces (sur le fait de la guerre) in Berry. Beaucourt, ii. 277, n. 
In 1442 the constable Richemont married his daughter. See, also, 
Beaucourt, i. 197, n., 412; ii. 43, 119, 283, 564, 635, n.; Plancher, ir, 
Ixxxi. 

2 P. iii. 86, 87, M. la Touroulde. 



186 JOAN OF ARC. 

bluff rising sharply from the fields which lay between the 
walls and the river. It was well fortified, with strong 
towers and a deep moat, and it was held by a sufficient 
garrison. Francis of Surienne did not command in per- 
son, but seems to have trusted the defense to some lieu- 
tenant.^ 

The army sent with Joan was not a large one, but it 
invested the place, and vigorously bombarded the walls.^ 
After the siege had lasted a week or so, Albret ordered 
an assault. The troops did their best to storm the place, 
but failed to accomplish anything, and at length fell 
back. Aulon, Joan's squire, charged with the care of 
her person, saw that she remained near the walls with 
only four or five men about her. Fearing that she would 
be wounded or taken by a sortie of the garrison, he rode 
up to her,^ and asked her impatiently what she was doing 
there alone, and why she did not fall back with the rest. 
Deliberately she took off her helmet, and told Aulon that 
she was not alone, but that she had in her company fifty 
thousand of her people, and that she would not budge 
from the spot until she had taken the town.* 

The literal-minded squire looked about him. Whatever 
she might say, as he afterwards testified, there were not 
above four or five men with her, an obvious fact known 
to others beside himself. Again he bade her leave the 
place and retreat, as the other soldiers had done. For 
answer she told him to bring hurdles and fagots, so that 
a way could be made over the ditch to the walls of the 
town, and then she cried to the troops: "Bring hurdles 
and fagots, every man of you, and bridge the ditch." 

1 Jaladon de la Barre, J. a St. Pierre le Moustier, 18, 22. 

2 P. V. 147, 148. 

8 He had been wounded and could not stand without crutches. 

^ Joan may have had a vision of soldiers, but this seems unlikely. 
Probably she spoke in some allegorical sense, and Anion's testimony 
may not report the exact words. 



ST. PIEERE LE MOUSTIER AND LA CHARITE. 187 

This was done, Aulon tells us, to his great surprise, 
and at once the town was taken by storm without much 
further resistance. The soldiers, carried away by the 
fury of the assault, tried to break into the church and 
pillage it, as they had pillaged the church at Jargeau. 
But Joan had a great horror of sacrilege ; " she manfully 
forbade it," as a priest who followed her testified, "and 
never suffered that anything should be carried away from 
the place." ^ 

About November 1 St. Pierre le Moustier was thus 
taken, but its siege had exhausted the French -^ov., 
supplies and munitions. Before attacking La ^^^• 
Charite, it was necessary to get together a considerable 
supply of powder, projectiles, arblasts, and the like. 
Joan went with Albret to Moulins, the most important 
place in the neighborhood, whence both of them dis- 
patched letters to the cities of central France, setting 
forth the needs of the army and asking for help. From 
some cities this help was forthcoming, and the expedition 
marched against La Charite about November 10. The 
marshal Boussac, one of the generals who had conducted 
Joan to the relief of Orleans, now joined the army.^ 

Between the fall of St. Pierre and the siege of La 
Charite, Joan had to undergo a trial inevitable to one in 
her position. In every province and in every city of 
France, in almost every hamlet, her story was known. 
Traveling friars preached sermons in her honor, and the 
prayers of the church taught that France had been saved 
by her hand.^ Might there not be other women who had 
visions as well as Joan, sent by God to take part in 
saving the country, or in aiding her to save it ? It was 
certain that women would appear who believed themselves 
to be thus inspired. 

1 P. iii. 217, Aulon; 23, Thierry. 

2 P. V. 146, 147, 148; Villaret, 159. That Boussac was not with 
the army from the first is expressly stated by Cagny, P. iv. 31. 

* Hardy, La Mission de J.j P. v. 104. 



188 JOAN OF ARC. 

Since the capture of Troyes in July, Friar Richard, 
the great preacher, had followed Joan. At first this 
enthusiastic, indiscreet man had given himself up entirely 
to admiration of her, but her simple common sense had 
discouraged his rhapsodies, and she had given no sign of 
enrolling herself among his followers, as many other 
women had done. He did not desert Joan, but he was 
ready to discover equal virtue in some other person, and 
he soon found his chance. At La Rochelle there lived 
a young married woman, Catherine by name, who gave 
out that she was visited by a white lady dressed in cloth 
of gold, and that she Avas divinely commissioned to go 
through the cities of France raising money for the pay- 
ment of Joan's soldiers. She wished the king to give her 
heralds and trumpeters, who should order all people to 
bring forth their gold, silver, and treasures, and should 
proclaim to the disobedient that Catherine knew them 
well and would find out their goods. Somehow or other 
this woman reached Berry and met Friar Richard. He 
did not wish to despise God's messenger a second time, 
and without hesitation he devoted himself to her cause. 
Instructed, perhaps, by one of La Tremoille's party, 
perhaps only catching the drift of opinion at court, Cath- 
erine talked much of making peace with the duke of 
Burgundy. 

The two women were brought together, and Catherine 
tried to join herself to Joan and so avail herself of Joan's 
reputation. Joan was shrewd ; but to disbelieve Cather- 
ine's story without investigation was to doubt the power 
of God. She asked, accordingly, if the white lady of 
whom Catherine spoke visited her every evening, and she 
proposed that they should use the same bed in order that 
she, too, might see the visitant; to this Catherine agreed. 
They lay awake until midnight, seeing nothing ; then the 
stout peasant girl could no longer keep her eyes open, 
but slept until morning. When she awoke she asked 



ST. PIERRE LE MOUSTIER AND LA CHARITE. 189 

if the white lady had come. Catherine said yes, hut 
that Joan was sleeping so soundly that it was impossi- 
ble to arouse her. Joan asked if the white lady would 
come the next evening also, and when Catherine replied 
that she would, Joan, knowing her own weakness, re- 
solved to guard against it, and went to sleep in the day- 
time. Thus refreshed, she was able to keep awake 
through the night. No white lady appeared, though 
Joan often asked if she was not coming, and Catherine 
always answered, "Yes, very soon." The story is espe- 
cially interesting, not as proving Catherine's bad faith, 
which is doubtful,^ but as showing the healthy physical 
nature of Joan, whom intense curiosity could not keep 
awake. 

The failure of Catherine to do as she had promised 
was not the only cause of Joan's disbelief in her. The 
woman's bearing did not commend her, and St. Cath- 
erine and St. Margaret, to whom Joan appealed in every 
case of doubt, told her that the matter was ouly folly. 
She wrote to the king to put him on his guard, and 
when she met him told him the woman amounted to 
nothing. Catherine herself she advised to go back to 
her husband and her children. It had become a part of 
Catherine's plan to visit the duke of Burgundy and urge 
him to make peace. Joan, who herself had urged him 
more than once, from her bitter experience answered that 
it seemed to her that peace would never be found except 
at the point of the lance. Both Catherine and Friar 
Richard were much offended with Joan, and the party at 
court opposed to her were now furnished with a means 
of discrediting her by setting up a rival prophetess. 
Catherine, in turn, advised against the expedition to La 
Charite, which was ready to set out.^ 

^ Probably she was at least partly sincere. 

" P. i. 106, 119, J.'s test. It is impossible to fix precisely the date 
of Joan's meetings with Catherine of La Roehelle. There were at 



190 JOAN OF ARC. 

About November 10 the army marched and sat down 
before the place. The details of the siege are almost alto- 
gether unknown. It lasted about a month, during much 
of which time the town was battered vigorously by the 
French artillery.^ There was great want of money and 
of munitions among the besiegers, and urgent appeal 
was made, not only to the court, but also to the city of 
Bourges. As usual, the king and his council did no- 
thing; having refused Alen9on's offer to raise troops, 
having sent Joan on an expedition not of her choosing, 
the success of which would have done little good, they 
left the soldiers to starve. Bourges did better; its peo- 
ple had suffered greatly from the ravages of Grasset's 
brigands; they saw that "it would be a great pity for 
the said town and for the whole country of Berry if the 
siege should be raised," and they sent to the army a con- 
siderable sum of money. 2 At last an assault was ordered, 

least two of them; they both took place after the return to Gien 
(September 21), and one at least before the expedition to La Charity 
(about November 10). Joan testified that she met Catherine at Jar- 
geau and at Montfaueon. If the expedition to La Charity was dis- 
cussed in the meeting at Jargeau, that meeting probably took place 
before the expedition to St. Pierre le Moustier, for it is very unlikely 
that Joan traveled as far as Jargeau in the interval between the 
two expeditions. During that time, however, she may well have 
stopped at Montfaueon. Catherine's objection that the weather was 
too cold for a siege would have been more reasonable in November 
than in October, before the attack on St. Pierre. On the whole, I 
am inclined to think that Joan first met Catherine at Montfaueon 
in early November, and later at Jargeau, where, on very doubtful 
authority, Joan is said to have spent her Christmas. P. iv. 474, Journ. 
Bourg. Charles VII. was at Jargeau on October 30 (Vallet de V., 
mss. itin.), but it seems that Joan was not with him when she first 
met Catherine. 

1 The facetious sharpshooter, John of Lorraine, was wounded 
while using his culverin, serving at the expense of Orleans. Villare<i 
166. 

2 P. iv. 31, Cagny; 49, Berri; 91, J. Chartier; v. 71, M. d'Au- 
vergne; 356. 



ST. PIERRE LE MOUSTIER AND LA CHARITE. 191 

apparently by Joan's direction,^ but it was repulsed with 
some loss. The money sent by the men of Bourges was 
spent, Grasset was skillful and wary, the unpaid and ill- 
fed soldiers became discouraged, and the siege was aban- 
doned in disorder, some of the French artillery falling 
into Grasset's hands. There were stories abroad that 
the raising of the siege was not due to the mere neglect 
of the court properly to support Joan. A chronicler 
writes that Grasset caused the troops to retire "by mar- 
velous adroitness," and it is not impossible that he dealt 
directly with Albret or with some other follower of La 
Tremoille.^ 

So ended the campaign in utter failure. Even if La 
Charite had fallen, nothing of importance would have 
been accomplished; as it was, not only was there a use- 
less waste of men and guns and ammunition and money, 
but the power of Joan's name, lessened by the failure 
before Paris, was almost destroyed. Commissioned to 
save France, but no longer directed by her voices pre- 
cisely where to go, she had trusted herself, like a sensible 
girl, even against her own judgment, to the advice of the 
captains about her.^ By them she had been betrayed, 
or at least abandoned. The only success in the cam- 
paign, a success as brilliant as any she had ever won, 
though quite profitless, had been gained by acting against 
their advice. She was not a general; to the art of war 
she brought nothing but shrewd common sense, a keen 

1 P. i. 109, J.'s test. 

2 Godefroy, Hist. Charles VII., 332. Vallet de V., Hist. Charles 
VII., ii. 126, says that Grasset surrendered La Charity in January, 
1430, on receipt of 1,300 crowns from Bourges. The modern author- 
ities to which he refers themselves cite no authorities, and the story 
is impossible. Grasset remained in command of La Charitd for Bur- 
gundy. Canat, Doc. ined., 330. Perhaps Bourges bought freedom 
from attack. See P. v. 356. La Charity was finally taken in 1440 
Godefroy, Charles VII., 412. 

8 P. i. 147, 169. J.'s test. 



192 JOAN OF ARC. 

eye for the situation, and a quick sympathy with the 
moods of her soldiers. Given the full command of an 
army, very likely she would have failed. What she did 
and could bring to any honest general of respectable 
skill was the power to make his soldiers fight as they 
had never fought, and to fill his enemies with a myste- 
rious dread which paralyzed the bravest of them. This 
moral power, worth thousands of the best fighting men, 
the king's council — for the wretched king had no will of 
his own — deliberately threw away. 



CHAPTER XV. 

LAGNY. 

The failure before La Charity ended Joan's fighting in 
the year 1429, and she went to join the king at Dec, 
the castle of Mehun on the Yevre, where he kept jf^rch 
his court. His negotiations with Burgundy still ^'^^'^^ 
dragged on without result, except an extension of the truce 
to Easter, 1430. ^ The English ignored the invitation to 
become a party to it, and vigorously carried on their war 
in Normandy, regaining after long sieges some of the places 
which they had lost at the time of the French advance.^ 
In the neighborhood of Paris, the truce did not alto- 
gether restrain the soldiery on either side. The French 
were in double difficulty, for they were forbidden to fight 
the Burgundians, while they were constantly exposed to 
the attacks of Philip's allies, the English. Finding him- 
seK without sufficient force and controlling authority, 
the count of Clermont resigned his office as lieutenant- 
general in the country north of the Seine, and retired to 
his estates. His authority, such as it was, devolved 
upon another prince of the house of Bourbon, the count 
of Vendome,^ who was under the control of the arch- 
bishop and of La Tremoille.* It should be added that 
at this time the favorite himself sought an interview 

1 Beaucourt, ii. 415. In October, Philip had been made Henry's 
lieutenant-general. Rev. Hist., t. xix. 71, 79. 

'^ For the operations in Nonmandy, see Cochon, Chron. Normandei 
307 et seq. 

8 Vendome had been a lieutenant of Clermont. Vallet de V., ii. 
121. See P. iv. 90. 

* Vallet de V., ii. 121 et seq. 



194 JOAN OF ARC. 

with the constable, in order to assassinate him.^ Joan's 
exploits had recovered for Charles a considerable amount 
of territory which was never again to be lost, but other- 
wise his prospects were not much better than they had 
been a year before. 

Joan passed at Mehun some weeks in idleness, and 
there is hardly any record of her doings during the whole 
winter. She was not as important a person as she had 
been six months before: the chroniclers no longer de- 
scribed her every action, the courtiers and the soldiers 
remembered that her march on Paris had ended in failure, 
and that her siege of La Charite had been a failure alto- 
gether; even the common people began to talk about her 
rivals, like Catherine of La Rochelle. It would seem 
that these things must have tried sorely even a being like 
Joan. The constant comfort of her voices, however, and 
her undoubting faith in her mission kept her from under- 
standing how hostile were many of the royal councilors, 
how indifferent the people were growing, and how much 
of her power was lost. 

Since the expedition to Orleans one or more of her 
brothers had accompanied her. They were commonplace 
young men, like their neighbors at Domremy, but they 
had their ambitions, and they wished to use their sis- 
ter's renown to better their own position. A patent 
of nobility was desirable, not only for the honor of the 
thing, but also because it conferred certain very sub- 
stantial privileges in matters of taxation. Joan cared 
nothing for nobility, — it seems that she tried to refuse 
it; but La Tremoille and his party were quite willing 
to grant her brothers' request. That which she really 

^ See Gruel, 75, 76 ; Lobineau, Hist. Bretagne, i. 582 ; Cosneau, 
Connet. de Richemont, 178 ; Beaucourt, ii. 268 et seq. It appears that 
La Tremoille first hired an assassin, and on his failure planned the 
interview. It is also probable that the constable was trying to 
assassinate the favorite. 



LAGNY. 195 

desired, an opportunity to fight against the enemies of 
France, they would not give her; they were the readier 
to profess their gratitude by loading her with empty 
honors. The patent was made out accordingly: Joan's 
services were touched upon, and it was declared fitting, 
not only on account of her merits, but also in recognition 
of the Divine grace, that she and all her family should 
be exalted and distinguished by rewards worthy the 
honor of the king's majesty. Therefore, considering the 
praiseworthy, grateful, and useful services many times 
rendered by her in the past, and the services which in 
future it was hoped she might render (this last phrase 
must have been pleasant to Joan), she, her father, mother, 
and brothers, and all their descendants to the farthest 
generation, were ennobled, with all the privileges belong- 
ing to nobilit}'.-^ 

The patent of nobility describes no coat-of-arms, but 
shortly before the patent was issued, or very soon after- 
wards, the brothers got leave to blazon a coat-of-arms, 
which has been treated as that of Joan herself, though 
she never used it. On an azure field, between two golden 
lilies of France, an upright sword supported a crown, 
plainly signifying that the sword of Joan had delivered 
the kingdom. The youngest brother was not content 
with this proud device, but preferred to invent or to bor- 
row what he was pleased to call the old arms of his fam- 
ily. Joan would not substitute either one or the other 
for the Annmiciation, the Crucifixion, and the throned 
Creator, the devices under which her victories had been 
won.'^ 

^ P. V. 150. 

2 P. V. 225. A note contained in a treatise on the value of coins, 
compiled in 1559, has been published by Wallon, ^d. illus., p. 414. 
It sets out that a coat-of-arms, bearing the sword, crown, and lilies, 
was granted to Joan by Charles at Chinon, on June 2, 1429, before 
the siege of Jargeau. In the year 1429 Charles was not at Chinon 



198 JOAN OF ARC. 

Before relieving Orleans, while she was living at 
Tours, she had become acquainted with the daughter of 
Hamish Power, ^ the Scotch painter who made and deco- 
rated her banner. The young girl, Heliote, was to be 
married in February, and Joan wrote to the council of 
the city, asking that a hundred crowns might be given to 
buy the trousseau of her friend. If the request had been 
made six months before, no doubt it would have been 
granted, but the enthusiasm of the councilors had cooled. 
The money of the city, they wisely said, should be spent 
in maintaining the city, and not otherwise. The good 
men did not wish to seem ungrateful, however; church- 
men and burghers voted to attend the wedding in a body, 
and to provide a good supply of bread and wine for the 
wedding feast, all in honor of Joan the Maid.^ 

In midwinter Joan went for a few days to Orleans, 
accompanied by Rabateau, her host at Poitiers, and by 
one of her brothers ; ^ but most of her time was spent at 
Mehun until the latter part of February, 1430, when La 
Tremoille carried both king and court to his castle of 
Sully on the Loire.* Here Joan lived for several weeks, 
and here she received a curious request. As has been 

after May 15, and the statement in the note carries, therefore, very 
little authority. Joan herself (P. i. 117) testified that she never had 
a coat-of-arms, but that the king gave one to her brothers like that 
mentioned in the text. This she had described to a painter, appar- 
ently in Rouen, who had asked what were her arras. Very possibly 
the arms were given to all Joan's family at one time, and her answer 
at the trial meant simply that she did not use them; or the arms may 
have been given to her brothers only, while later tradition attributed 
them to Joan also. 

^ See Vallet de V., ii. 65 ; Leffevre-Pontalis, Lafausse J., 26. 

2 P. V. 154, 271. 

^ P. V. 270. At some time or other she seems to have hired a 
house from the chapter of the cathedral for a long term of years. 
See Doinel, Notes sur une maison de J. ; Rev. Hist., t. xix. 66. 

* Vallet de V., mss. itin. Before going to Sully, Charles seems to 
have spent a few days in Jargeau. 



LAGNY. 197 

Baid, the fame of her exploits, embellished by legend, was 
spread over all Europe. In the accounts of the city of 
Katisbon has been found a payment for the exhibition of 
a picture of Joan fighting the English. All Germany, 
and eastern Germany in particular, was greatly excited 
over the struggle between the Hussites and the Cath- 
olics in Bohemia. The latter, knowing that Joan was 
commissioned by God for holy warfare, in their distress 
appealed to her piety. In her name, accordingly, a 
manifesto against the Hussites was issued. With fervid 
clerkly rhetoric their sins were described, and they were 
threatened with speedy destruction at the hands of Joan. 
Carried away in the flow of his periods, the scribe made 
Joan say that perhaps she would leave the English, in 
order "to root out your hideous superstition with the 
edge of the sword, and snatch you either from heresy or 
from life." The style of the letter shows pretty plainly 
that Joan had no part in its composition, but she proba- 
bly shared the horror of the heretical Hussites which was 
felt by all religious Frenchmen about her.^ 

During these weeks at Sully, Joan had little time to 
think about the crimes of the Hussites. The end of the 
truce was approaching. In a few weeks the Burgun- 
dians would be free to take the field ; already their forces 
were summoned,^ and it behooved the French to be ready 
for them. There was a chance to retrieve the mistakes 
of the year just ended, and vigorously to set about driv- 

* P. V. 270, 156. Notice the contrast between the balanced rhetoric 
of this letter with its metaphors and similes and the unadorned direct- 
ness of Joan's genuine letters, disfigured though they sometimes are 
by clumsy repetitions. For other letters supposed to have been writ- 
ten by Joan to persons asking her help, see P. v. 253. In thank- 
fulness for his escape from disease by means of the intercession of 
St. Catherine of Fierbois, a canon of Angers celebrated mass for the 
king, the Maid, and the welfare of the kingdom, May 5, 1430. P. v. 
164. 

* Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. IxxxL 



198 JOAN OF AEC. 

ing the English from France. The royalists in Paris 
were plotting to open the gates to Charles's soldiers, ^ the 
inhabitants of the places occupied by the French were in 
constant fear of an attack by the Anglo-Burgiindians. 

Six months earlier, after abandoning his campaign 
in northern France and before retreating to the Loire, 
Charles had assured his frightened subjects, and espe- 
cially the men of Rheims, that, as soon as the truce was 
ended, he woidd return at the head of a greater army 
than ever, and with that army would recover his realm. 
The time was come ; it was vain to hope that he would 
take the field in person, but he made no attempt even to 
raise an army, and the men of Eheims were in great dis- 
tress. Their captain, a nephew of the archbishop, had 
abandoned them, and was gone no one knew where, hav- 
ing first got a safe-conduct from the duke of Burgundy.^ 
A conspiracy to betray them to the English had been 
made between a canon of the cathedral and Peter Cau- 
chon, count bishop of Beauvais, himself once a canon of 
Rheims, now a fierce partisan of the English. The plot 
was discovered, the canon was forced to confess, and was 
sentenced to perpetual imprisonment in chains; but the 
men of Rheims wrote their fears to Joan. On March 16 
she answered them from Sully, bidding them man their 
walls, if attacked, and promising to succor them speedily. 
"I would send you other good news, whereat you woidd 
be right glad," she added, "but I fear lest this letter 
should be taken by the way, and lest they should learn 
the said news."^ Probably she had in mind the march 
into the north which Charles had promised to lead in 
person.* 

1 See Journ. Bourg., ann. 1430 ; Vallet de V., ii. 140 ; Longnon, 
Paris sous la domin. anglaise, 301. 

2 Varin, Arch. Leg. Reims, Stat., t. i. p. 746, n. ; P. iv. 381. 

8 Jadart, J. a Reinu, 109 et seq. ; P. v. 129 ; Wallon, ^d. illus., 202. 
* See Beaucourt, ii. 266. 



LAGNY. 199 

A few days later the men of Rheims wrote again to 
her, begging her to contradict certain stories of their 
disloyalty which had been carried to the king. She 
promised to do so. "I know well," she went on, "that 
you have much to suffer from the cruelty of our enemies, 
those treacherous Burgundians, but by God's will you 
shall be delivered shortly, that is to say, as soon as possi- 
ble. I beg and pray you, my very dear friends, to guard 
well your good city for the king, and to keep good watch. 
You shall soon hear good news of me more plainly. At 
present I write yon no more, save that all Brittany is 
French, and the duke will send the king three thousand 
soldiers paid for two months." ^ 

On March 28 this letter was written from Sully; 
within the next ten days the king went fi'om Sully to 
Jargeau.2 Before his departure Joan came to a decision 
unlike any she had yet taken. Her hope of help from 
Brittany was quite vain; perhaps the hope was held out 
simply to deceive her, and she may have learned the truth. 
Not improbably the proposed departure of Charles for 
Jargeau showed her that there was no chance of his tak- 
ing the field. In some way or other the poor girl learned 
that the king whom she had crowned cared little for the 
kingdom she was trying to win for him, and that the 
cities she had freed were to be left almost defenseless to 
his enemies. Her loyalty to her anointed king was part 
of her religion, and never failed, even after the plainest 
proof of his cowardice and imbecility; but she held this 
loyalty, as many an article of faith is held, without push- 
ing it to its logical consequences, and she recognized that 
nothing could be hoped from him in the struggle which 
was before her. To La Tremoille and his party she was 
bound by no loyalty whatever, and she was coming to 
understand pretty plainly their treason to France. 

^ P. V. 161 ; Jadart, 106. See Lobineau, Hist. Bretagne, i. 582 ; 
ii. 1007. 

2 Vallet de V., mss. itin. 



200 JOAN OF ARC. 

At the very end of March, or on one of the first days 
AprU, ^^ April, ^ she left Sully quietly without leave 
1430. of ^Y^Q king and his council. Believe in God as 

she might, she could not be quite as sanguine as she had 
been on leaving Vaucouleurs a year before. Then she 
had taken for granted the honest patriotism and innocent 
life of all Frenchmen whom she met; now she knew that 
much wickedness and treason were to be found even 
among Frenchmen. Then she had been bidden by her 
voices to raise the siege of Orleans and to lead Charles 
to Rheims; now she received no such definite commands, 
and by the exercise of her own judgment must find out 
how to save France. She felt her loss of importance in 
the eyes of the people and of the soldiers, and her very 
voices, still promising the final deliverance of the king- 
dom, said less of present success, and even hinted at some 
disaster. 

She rode northward with her little military household, 
joining herself, perhaps, to some band of soldiers going 
that way. She had no definite plan, except to get into 
the field, and she was ready to help any good work as 
she went. Instead of going through Champagne by 
the road which she had opened the year before, she kept 
farther to the westward, intending to pass near Paris. 
Her way was obstructed by Anglo-Burgundian fortresses, 
and she seems to have traveled rather slowly, waiting for 
the truce to end. The chroniclers give almost no accotmt 
of her journey. 

Directly in her path, at the crossing of the Seine, was 
the city of Melun. It had been taken by Henry V. ten 
years before,^ and had been held by the English until 
September, 1429, when, with Paris and many other 

^ Cagny says that her departure was in March. P. iv. 32. He 
says, also, that it was without the king's knowledge, but it must have 
been tacitly permitted by the council, since Aulon accompanied her. 

2 Vallet de V., Charles VIL, i. 226. 



LAGNY. 201 

places, it had been handed over to Duke Philip as the 
price of his support. ^ Its Burgundian captain was busy 
elsewhere, and his brothers, who acted as his lieutenants, 
kept poor guard. The people of Melun were tired of the 
English and Burgundians, and more than ready to ac- 
knowledge Charles. Hearing, it may be, of Joan's ap- 
proach, they rose suddenly upon the garrison, which 
found itself thrust out of the place before it had time to 
comprehend what was going on.^ This happened about 
Easter, April 16, and Joan was thus able to cross the 
Seine without trouble.^ 

She spent several days in Melun waiting, it is likely, 
to see if the English or Burgundians would try to retake 
the place. What was the size of her party we do not 
know. Probably it was small, made up of a few soldiers 
who were ready for adventure and desirous of reaching 
the seat of war ; but small as it was, it would be useful 
if Melun were attacked. One day in Easter week, while 
Joan was on duty in the fortifications of the city, her 
voices spoke to her, and told her that she should be made 
prisoner. Startled, but not terrified, she asked when 
this was to happen. St. Catherine and St. Margaret an- 
swered that she would be taken before midsummer, or 
St. John's Day, June 24. This must certainly come to 
pass, they told her; but she need not be frightened, and 
ought to bear all with patience, since God would help 
her. 

Over and over again, nearly every day, the voices fore- 
told her capture. What they said may not always have 

^ Beaucourt, ii. 35, n. 

2 Chastellain, ii. 28. 

8 It is impossible to say with certainty if Joan reached Melun be- 
fore its capture. Her expression, " sur les fosses de Melun," may 
imply that she did, but Chastellain strongly implies the contrary. 
The truce was over at Easter, and the occupation of Melun by the 
French probably took place immediately afterwards. 



202 JOAN OF ARC. 

been a definite prediction, but the certainty of capture 
was kept constantly before her. In the face of this cer- 
tainty her behavior was characteristic. She begged the 
saints who spoke to her that she might die when she was 
taken, without long suffering in prison. With a healthy 
disregard of logic, she tried to learn the time of her cap- 
ture, hoping to avoid it; and when she failed in this, she 
kept right on in her work, as if she had received no 
warning whatever. If she could have escaped by keep- 
ing herself close for a day, she would have done so; to 
save herseK by going back to court and staying there, 
never entered her mind. She cheered herself, as best 
she might, by the promise of God's help which her voices 
brought her, and she prepared to obey their commands, 
whatever these might be.^ 

In the latter part of April, soon after Easter, Joan 
rode on from Melun to cross the Marne at Lagny, a 
small fortified town on the south bank of the river, which 
in the preceding August had acknowledged Charles.^ 
The freebooting soldiers on both sides had paid little 
respect to the truce while it lasted ; now that it was over, 
the whole country was in arms. The plot to give up 
Paris to the Armagnacs had failed ; some of the conspir- 
ators were tortured into confession, and many had been 
executed.^ Philip of Burgundy had gathered a large army 
at Arras, and had sent a strong detachment to reinforce 
the garrison of Paris; * altogether the prospects of the 

^ P. i. 115, J.'s test. Our knowledge of these predictions comes 
from Joan's testimony, given long after the predictions were fulfilled. 
A careful study of this testimony, however, leaves a strong impression 
that her recollections were colored very little, if at all, by subse- 
quent events. St. John's Day, a natural term to fix upon, was about 
two months after the prophecy. The actual capture was on May 23. 
a full month earlier. 

2 P. iv. 88, J. Chartier. 

8 Journ. Bourg., ann. 1430. 

* Chastellain, ii. 30 ; St. Remy, ch. clviii. 



LAGNY. 203 

royalists were not very bright. At just this time a party 
of Anglo-Burgundians, led by one Franquet of Arras, a 
soldier of fortune/ set out from Paris to take a castle 
which the French were fortifying, and to harry the coun- 
try about Lagny.2 

While on the road, the leaders were tempted to turn 
aside and fall upon a defenseless village and abbey. 
There was no resistance, and the party was soon loaded 
with the spoils of the church and of the poor peasants ; 
thus incumbered, it pushed on to the castle. But the 
sack of a church and a village, in itself a proceeding 
almost altogether safe, could not be carried on without 
arousing attention. The castle was not surprised, and 
it resisted stoutly; the French from Lagny and the 
neighboring garrisons, hearing the alarm, came quickly 
to their comrades' relief, and shut in Franquet and his 
troops between themselves and the castle. His English 
archers formed in good order, — the freebooters, to do 
them justice, were brave enough, — and the first attack of 
the French was repulsed. But the French had the ad- 
vantage both of position and of numbers. The artillery 
of the castle played upon Franquet's rear; Joan herself, 

^ In 1416 Franquet was serving the duke of Burgundy in company 
with Perriuet Grasset. Liv. TraJiisons, 131. 

2 I have assumed that the expedition of Franquet described by 
Jean Chartier (P. iv. 91), Monstrelet (P. iv. 399), and by Chastellain, 
(ii. 40), is the same as that mentioned by Cochon, 310, and in the 
Joum. Bourg., ann. 1430, though the last two accounts say nothing of 
Franquet or of Joan. The date is about the same. Joum. Bourg. 
and Cochon put it at the end of April ; Monstrelet early in May ; but 
if Franquet's trial lasted a fortnight (P. i. 158), his capture prob- 
ably happened before May 1. The numbers are the same in Chartier, 
Monstrelet, Chastellain, and Joum. Bourg. ; much larger in Cochon. 
The result of the encounter is the same. Joum. Bourg. mentions 
only English ; Cochon, English and Burgundians ; Monstrelet and 
Chastellain speak of " those of the party of Burgundy," and men- 
tion archers, who were probably English. Joum. Bourg., Chastellain, 
and Monstrelet, all mention the assembling of the French garrisons. 



204 JOAN OF ARC. 

with certain captains from Lagny, attacked the English 
in front, and retreat was impossible. Nearly all Fran- 
quet's men were killed or taken, he himself being made 
prisoner. The booty was large, for it is hinted by a 
Burgundian chronicler that the French did not retvirn to 
their former possessors all the goods taken by the English 
from the monks and the peasants.^ 

In the fifteenth century a notable prisoner like Fran- 
quet of Arras was generally held to ransom, being treated 
with reasonable humanity until his ransom was paid. 
For some reason Franquet was very obnoxious to his cap- 
tors. He was a robber, a traitor, and a murderer, they 
said, — words of doubtful import, since nearly every sol- 
dier robbed all those weaker than himself, and there were 
few Frenchmen who had not at some time in the course of 
the long civil war betrayed one party or the other. As 
for murder, the laws of war were too loose for its clear 
definition. For murder, treason, and robbery, however, 
Franquet was immediately tried before the bailiff of 
Senlis,^ and was by him found guilty and condemned to 
death. The trial lasted about a fortnight, and Joan 
was not particularly concerned with it, though she sug- 
gested that Franquet 's life should be spared, and that he 
should be held as hostage for a certain Parisian inn- 
keeper, perhaps one of the men who had just conspired 
to surrender Paris to the French. The innkeeper, how- 
ever, was already dead, and the bailiff told Joan that 
she would be doing a great injustice if she saved the 
prisoner's life. She was no lawyer; she had no commis- 
sion to administer justice, and she could have had little 
sympathy with a freebooter like Franquet. "Since my 

' Joum. Bourg., ubi supra. 

2 Jean de Troissy. Jadart, /. a Reims, 110. See Lobineau, Hist, 
Bretagne, i. 594. Richard Pocaire is called bailiff of Senlis (Lobineau, 
i. 582 ; Beaucourt, ii. 271), but the contemporary authority cited by 
Jadart seems conclusive. 



LAGNY. 



205 



man whom I wished to get is dead," she said, "deal with 
this man as justice requires." Franquet was beheaded, 
accordingly, "greatly bewailed by those of his way of 
thinhino- for as much as in arms he was a man of valiant 
conduct."^ 

While Joan was staying at Lagny, she heard that an 
unbaptized baby, three days old, had been brought life- 
less to the church of Our Lady, in faint hope that it 
might revive, at least for a moment. The maidens of the 
town were on their knees before the shrine of the Virgin, 
and Joan was asked to join them in the prayer that God 
and the Virgin would give back life to the child. She 
went there and prayed with the others. The child was 
black in the face, — black as her coat, Joan said, — but 
after a while it cried two or three times, and its color be- 
gan to come back. It was baptized at once, and though 
it died almost immediately afterwards, its parents had 
the satisfaction of burying their child in consecrated 
grovmd. Of course the story went about Lagny that 
Joan's prayers had brought a dead baby back to life, but 
Joan herself did not feel sure that the baby had ever been 
dead. To the notion that she had wrought a miracle, 
she paid no heed whatever.^ 

The capture of Melun and the defeat of Franquet were 
an auspicious opening to Joan's campaign; we know too 
little of the details of these exploits to determine how 
much credit for them fairly belongs to her. That she 
carried herself gallantly in them is evident, and it should 
be borne in mind that after leaving Melun she fought 
with the certainty of approaching imprisonment before 
her. 

1 P. i. 158, J.'s test. ; iv. 400, Monstrelet. See B. de Molandon 
Uarmee anglaise, 38. 
8 P. i. 105, J.'s test. 



CHAPTER XVL 

COMPIEGNE. 

In the early spring of 1429 the eyes of all Frenchmen 
. were turned toward Orleans. A year later, the 

I>ee., eyes of all men in the north of France were 

1429. 

turned toward Compiegne. This was a walled 
town of five thousand inhabitants or thereabouts,^ on the 
left or eastern bank of the Oise, about forty miles north- 
east of Paris. Its political history had been a varied one : 
twice it had been held by the Burgundians, and twice had 
it been taken from them by the Armagnacs; then it had 
fallen to the English in consequence of the treaty of 
Troyes, and in August, 1429, it had opened its gates to 
Charles VII.^ This had been done quite willingly, and 
the loyalty of its citizens was real and reasonably unani- 
mous. At Compiegne had been held the conferences 
with the Burgundian ambassadors, and the truce was 
signed there. After receiving Charles, the people of 
Compiegne seem to have desired as captain of their town 
one William of Flavy, an experienced soldier and a man 
neither better nor much worse than other French cap- 
tains of the day. La Tremoille, however, wished the 

^ See Sorel, La prise de J. devant Compiegne, 366 et seq. In 1448 
the population of the town is said to have fallen to 1,200, or 400 
households (menages). As over 500 dwelling-houses had been de- 
stroyed in the civil wars, however, and as the statement was made 
with the object of showing as bad a condition of affairs as possible, I 
do not think the normal population could have been less than 5,000 
Probably it was larger. 

2 See Sorel, passim. 



COMPIEGNE. 207 

captaincy for himself, and got it as a matter of course, 
making Flavy his lieutenant by way of compromise. ^ 

The duke of Burgundy, having obtained a truce advan- 
tageous to himself and injurious to the royal cause, natu- 
rally wished some further consideration for his complai- 
sance, and asked that Compiegne be delivered to him for 
the term of the truce. ^ La Tremoille and the royal coun- 
cil made no objection, and the inhabitants were ordered 
to open their gates to the duke's soldiers. This they 
flatly refused to do. Flavy, who was unwilling to offend 
either the citizens or the favorite, posted off with his 
excuses to the chancellor. ^ That functionary came to 
Compiegne, summoned the people, and told them that it 
was necessary to give up the city to the duke in order to 
win him from his English allies. The citizens replied 
that they were the king's humble subjects, willing to 
obey him and to serve him with their bodies and their 
goods, but that they would not trust themselves to the 
duke, on account of the hatred he had conceived against 
them for their loyalty. The chancellor repeated his 
orders, but they were not heeded ; nothing coidd shake 
the resolution of the citizens, who preferred to destroy 
themselves, their wives and children, rather than giv- 
themselves up to the duke's mercy.* 

1 For Flavy, see Lafons de Melicocq, Noyon et le Noyonnais, 82, 256 ; 
Flourac, Jean I. Comte de Foix, 118. In 1428 he had defended Beau- 
mont against John of Luxemburg, and in a sortie had taken prisoner 
a notable man at arms of Luxemburg's company. Fearing that he 
could not hold out, and that he should thus lose the ransom of his 
prisoner, he celebrated the man's funeral and buried his effigy in sight 
of the besiegers, hoping thus that he might put them off their guard, 
and be able to smuggle away his prisoner. Apparently the trick 
did not succeed. Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. xlvii. 

2 See the lay of Alain Chartier to the duke of Burgundy, recalling 
him to his duty. Chastellain, ii. 26, n. 

8 The archbishop of Rheims. 

* P. V. 173 ; Beaucourt, ii. 414 ; Quicherat, Aper^us nouveaux, 82. 



208 JOAN OP ARC. 

The miserable inefficiency of the royal government 
sometimes served a good purpose. As the citizens were 
obstinate, a new bargain was made with Philij), and Pont 
Ste. Maxence was handed over to him instead of Com- 
piegne. The duke did not intend to give up the place, 
however; during the truce he could not act, but as soon 
as it was over he was determined to take the town. 

Early in January he celebrated at Bruges with great 
magnificence his marriage with his third wife, 
April, Isabella of Portugal.^ He was probably the 
richest prince of his time, and his court was the 
most splendid. On this occasion, after weeks of feasting, 
he founded with great pomp the Order of the Golden 
Fleece, which remains to this day in the gift of his de- 
scendants, the emperor of Austria and the king of Spain. 
There were tournaments, also, at Bruges and at Arras, 
wherein French and Burgundian knights contended in all 
courtesy, who were soon to be fighting in earnest.^ The 
coming of Lent put a stop to the gayety, but Philip util- 
ized the season of fasting by sending out summons to his 
subjects to meet him by Easter at Peronne. In this 
stronghold, some fifty miles north of Compiegne, called 
Peronne the Maid, because it never had been captured, 
he spent his Easter with the duchess. As soon as the 
festival was over, and the truce was at an end, he took 
the field with a large force. ^ 

The city of Compiegne is situated on the east bank of 
the Oise, just south of the place where the Aisne enters 
that river from the east and the Aronde from the west. 
To reach Compiegne from Peronne, which is west of the 
Oise and north of the Aronde, it was necessary for the 

^ Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. Ixxvii. 

2 Monstrelet, Bk. II. chaps. lxxix.,lxxxi.; St. Remy, chaps, civ., clvi., 
clvii. 

* Monstrelet, Bk. II. chaps. Ixxxi., Ixxxii. On March 8 the English 
gave Philip Champagne and Brie, and 12,500 marks in cash. Vallet 
de v., ii. 138. The duke was au expensive but indispensable ally. 



COMPIEGNE. 209 

duke either to cross the Aronde and the Oise, or else to 
cross the Oise and the Aisne. The fortress of Gournay 
stood at the passage of the Aronde,^ while that of Choisy 
covered the only passage of the Aisne within many miles 
of Compiegne. 

Philip arrived before Gournay at the end of April. 
There was no French army to take the field for its relief, 
and the captain of Gournay feared an assault, — very 
possibly with good reason. Being summoned by Philip 
to surrender, he agreed to abandon the place on August 
1, unless sooner relieved, and in the mean time to keep 
strict neutrality. 2 By this treaty Philip secured his com- 
munications between Peronne and the camp which he 
intended to establish in front of Compiegne, on the west 
bank of the Oise. 

Between him and the city, however, flowed the Oise, 
an unfordable river. It might be crossed, in- ^ay, 
deed, at Pont Ste. Maxence, fifteen miles down- ■^^^''• 
stream, and by way of that place Philip might march 
agamst Compiegne ; but the position of an army encamped 
about Compiegne, which could communicate with its base 
of supplies only by Pont Ste. Maxence, would be greatly 
exposed. A French army marching along the north bank 
of the Aisne, and protected by that river from the Bur- 
gundians besieging Compiegne, might safely reach Choisy, 
and, crossing the bridge which Choisy commanded, might 
fall suddenly upon the Burgundian rear. To make the 
blockade of Compiegne safe and complete, it was neces- 
sary first to reduce Choisy. 

^ Probably the Aronde could have been crossed almost anywhere, 
but Philip could not safely leave a fortress like Gournay so near his 
line of communications. 

^ Chastellain, ii. 31 ; Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. Ixxxii. When August 
came, Gournay was surrendered. Chastellain, ii. 68. The captain was 
imcle of Agnes Sorel, and father of Antoinette of Maignelays, 
Agnes' successor in the royal favor. Vallet de V., Charles VII., iii. 
243. 



210 JOAN OF ARC. 

As soon as he had come to terms with the captain of 
Gournay, the duke ascended the west bank of the Oise to 
Noyon, a town faithful to his party. His plans had been 
slightly disarranged by the sudden inroad of Robert of 
Commercy, the freebooting lord who used to take black- 
mail of the peasants of Domremy. At this moment 
Robert called himself loyal to Charles, but his raid ac- 
complished nothing, save, perhaps, easier terms for the 
garrison of Gournay. He retreated, even before Philip 
could get at him, leaving the duke free to carry out his 
operations against Choisy.^ After a few days spent in 
Noyon, about May 8 Philip sat down before the place. 

Though the duke had been arming openly for a month 
or more, yet, until the siege of Choisy was formed, the 
French seem to have done nothing; perhaps they had 
been trusting in Charles's often repeated promises to lead 
an army to their assistance. The actual appearance of 
the duke within two or three miles of Compiegne at last 
May 13- aroused them, and about May 13 the principal 
17, 1430. Prench leaders met hastily in the city, being 
accompanied by a considerable body of soldiers, though 
their force was greatly inferior to that of the duke. The 
archbishop was present. La Tremoille's delegate in the 
government of northern France. With him were the count 
of Vendome, who had the military command; Pothon 
of Saintrailles, a distinguished French soldier, who had 
lately won honor in tilting with the Burgundians at Arras ; 
and many other captains. Joan heard at Lagny of the 
movements of Duke Philip, and came at once to Com- 
piegne. She was honorably received by the city, and 
was offered presents of wine like those given to Vendome 
and the archbishop.'^ 

^ Chastellain, ii. 31, 33, 36; Monstrelet, Bk. II. cliaps. Ixxxii., IxxxiiL 

^ Sorel, 145 ; P. iv. 260. Two dates in the last campaign of Joan 

are fixed. She was at Compiegne from May 14 (probably from 

May 13) to May 18, and she reentered the city early on the morn- 



COMPIEGNE. 211 

A council of war was held. To march directly against 
the duke was out of the question, partly by reason of 
his superior numbers, and partly because his camp was 
protected from the French by the Aisne. They could 
not pass this river at Choisy itself, because the bridge 
either had been broken down, or else was commanded by 
the duke's forces. There was no other bridge over the 

ing of May 23. See Sorel, 145. There is no evidence that she 
was at Compi^gne in 1430 before May 13, and this is unlikely, for 
the capture of Franquet, near Lagny, was not earlier than the last 
days of April, and his trial lasted a fortnight, which would bring his 
execution not before May 10, up to which date Joan was probably 
in Lagny. She left Lagny, therefore, not earlier than May 10, 
reached Compi^gne May 13, left it May 18, passed the night of 
the 18th near Soissons, and on the afternoon of the 22d left Crdpy 
for Compi^gne. The battle of Pont I'Eveque was fought before 
the surrender of Choisy. The surrender could not well have taken 
place before May 18, on which day the French army marched on 
Soissons ; nor after May 20, since by May 23 the siege of Com- 
pifegne was already formed. Philip lay before Choisy on May 10 
(Chastellain, ii. 38, n.), and was there about ten days. Probably 
Choisy surrendered as soon as Louis of Flavy learned the failure of 
the French army to pass the Aisne at Soissons. The battle of Pont 
I'Eveque, therefore, was fought before May 20. But it is impossible 
that Joan, who spent the morning of May 19 before Soissons, should 
have returned to Compi^gne that very day, should have fought the 
battle of Pont I'Eveque on the following morning, should have left 
the city at once, just as Choisy was surrendering, and within two 
days, on May 22, should have again started for the place. Plainly 
the battle was fought during Joan's first stay in Compifegne, May 
13-18, probably on the morning of the 16th or of the 17th. In sup- 
posing that the battle was fought after the failure before Soissons, 
May 18-19, M. Sorel has not studied the dates with sufficient care, as 
is shown by the fact that, while he supposes the battle was fought to 
succor Choisy, he yet puts the surrender of that place May 15 (see 
Sorel, 159), three days before the march on Soissons, and, therefore, 
according to him, four or five days before the battle. The anonymous 
chronicler in Rev. Hist., t. xix. 82, puts the surrender of Choisy on 
May 16, and the formation of the siege of Compiegne May 21, but 
the first date is too early. The same writer puts Joan's capture on 
May 27. 



212 JOAN OF AEG. 

Aisne nearer tlian Soissons, some twenty miles up the 
river and east of Compiegne. In one respect, however, 
Philip's position was weak. To get at Choisy, he had 
had to pass the Oise at Pont I'Eveque, near Noyon, and 
the bridge of Pont I'Eveque was his only means of com- 
munication with his base of supplies and with the country 
which he owned. ^ If the French could seize and hold 
this bridge, he would be compelled either to fight his way 
across an unfordable river, or to make a long retreat 
through a hostile country. The duke had recognized the 
importance of the bridge, and had intrusted its defense 
to two English captains, Montgomery and Stewart.^ 

The bridge was chosen by the French as the object of 
their attack. By night, with about two thousand sol- 
diers, Joan and Saintrailles crossed the Oise at Com- 
piegne, and rode up its west bank, being protected by the 
river from the duke's army, which lay on the east bank 
about Choisy. Just before sunrise the French reached 
Pont I'Eveque and fell upon the English. These were 
completely surprised, as most of them were asleep and 
the sentries had kept poor watch ; before they could form 
in order, the French were among them, striking right 
and left, and killing many. Despite the confusion, how- 
ever, the English fought bravely, and held out until Bur- 
gundian reinforcements were brought up from Noyon. 
The contest was then more equal, and the French, seeing 
that their unexpected attack had not secured them a 
victory, and fearing lest the duke should send further 
reinforcements from his camp before Choisy, drew off 
in good order. Their enemies had no intention of fol- 
lowing them, and the Anglo-Burgundian losses were fully 
equal to the French; but the object of the expedition 

^ There may have been a bridge over the Oise at Onrscamp, 
below Pont I'Eveque, but probably it was not much used, if it existed. 
See Sorel, 171; St. Remy, ch. clviii.; Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. Ixxziii. 

2 Chastellain, ii. 36. 



COMPIEGNE. 213 

had failed completely, and the battle of Pont I'Eveque 
was therefore a decided French defeat.^ Joan had done 
what she could for French success, but the expedition 
had been none of her planning. As the time of her cap- 
tivity drew near, she followed more closely the advice 
of the captains, fearing, probably, to make herself re- 
sponsible for some disaster to the French arms. 

The battle of Pont I'Eveque was fought on May 16 
or 17. For more than a week Choisy had been battered 
by the duke's artillery; every day its condition became 
more critical, and the French planned a second attempt 
to relieve it. They had failed to turn Philip's position 
by the west ; they would now do so by the east. On May 
18 the army left Compiegne with the archbishop, Joan, 
Vendome, and the rest, and marched up the Mayis- 
south bank of the Aisne to Soissons, where was ^^' ^*^^* 
the nearest bridge over that river. Once across the 
Aisne, they could attack Philip, or, if they preferred, 
could threaten his communications without actually fight- 
ing a battle. Before nightfall they reached Soissons. 
The officer in command of the place, being bribed by the 
duke, who was negotiating for its surrender, refused to 
admit the army, and persuaded the citizens to join in his 
resistance by telling them that the French wished to 
quarter a garrison upon the place. This was a calamity 
greatly dreaded by all respectable cities, and the deluded 
people, though loyal after their fashion, took sides with 
the captain. After much parleying, he was induced to 
admit the archbishop, Joan, and Vendome with a very 
small escort, but the army had to sleep in the fields. 
When morning came, the captain of Soissons was still 
obdurate; the army could not cross the Aisne except by 
entering the city, and its leaders were at their wits' end. 
Vendome, as the king's lieutenant, had the right, of 

1 P. iv. 397, Monstrelet ; 437, St. Remy ; Chastellain, ii. 37. See 
P. i. 147, J.'s test.; Sorel, 152 et seq. 



214 JOAN OF ARC. 

course, to enter Soissons and to command its captain, but 
in the feeble misgovernment of Charles VII. no one 
obeyed his superior officer unless obedience was agreeable 
or enforced, and even the duke of Burgundy sometimes 
found the gates of his cities closed against his troops. 

In spite of the obstinacy of Soissons, it is probable 
that the French army would have found some way across 
the Aisne if it had been heartily set upon the attempt. 
Except Joan, however, no one cared much about fight- 
ing; the defeat at Pont I'Eveque and the disaffection of 
the men of Soissons had cooled the ardor of the captains. 
These left the north of France, accordingly, "because 
they found no means of living off the country, and also 
because they were great lords, accompanied by many 
men at arms, who could not live in the said city of 
Compiegne, inasmuch as its citizens daily expected it to 
be besieged." The demoralization of the French was 
nearly as great, indeed, as it had been fourteen months 
before. If the men of Compiegne could save themselves, 
so much the better ; if the city was taken, so much the 
worse. The French leaders went to Senlis, a compara- 
tively safe place, leaving Compiegne to its fate. Some 
weeks after their departure from Soissons its treacherous 
captain sold his charge to the duke of Burgundy, and the 
citizens found out how they had been deceived. ^ 

The final abandonment of the attempt to relieve Choisy 
made its further defense quite hopeless. On May 19 
or 20 its captain, Louis of Flavy, stole out of the for- 
tress by night and managed to get across the Aisne to 
his brother, the captain of Compiegne. The rest of the 
garrison, thereupon, were glad to come to terms with the 
Burgundians, and to evacuate the place on being allowed 
a safe retreat. Philip immediately demolished the castle 
even to its foundation, and then recrossed the Oise.^ In 

^ P. iv. 49, Berri; St. Kemy, ch. clx. ; Moustrelet, Bk. II. ch. xci.; 
Chastellain, ii. 68. 

^ Chastellain, ii. 68 ; Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. Ixxxiii. 



COMPIEGNE. 215 

order to carry on the siege of Compiegne, he determined 
first to intrench himself on the west bank of the river 
opposite the town, and then, after having established a 
bridge across the Oise and transported a part of his 
forces to the east bank, to complete a close blockade of 
the place on every side. It will be remembered that the 
siege of Orleans was begun in like manner from the south 
bank of the Loire by an attack on the Tourelles. 

The duke divided his force into four parts. The Pic- 
ards were encamped at Margny, directly opposite Com- 
piegne and only half a mile away; the Burgundians and 
Flemings were at Clairoix, some two miles above Com- 
piegne, under the command of John of Luxemburg, count 
of Ligny; the English were at Venette, a mile or two 
south of the town, under the command of that Montgom- 
ery who had fought at Pont I'Eveque. The duke him- 
self fixed his headquarters at Coudun on the Aronde,^ 
some four miles from Compiegne, where he could cover 
his communications. He established these positions on 
May 21 or 22, and made ready for the siege.^ 

After the failure at Soissons, Joan did not go with the 
archbishop to Senlis, but stopped with her own May 22, 
small following of soldiers at Crepy. Here she ^'^^^' 
heard of the fall of Choisy and of the movements of 
Philip. The famous captains, like Saintrailles, whose 
advice of late she had been ready to follow, were no 
longer with her, but only one Bartholomew Barrette, a 
soldier of no great reputation, who had fought against 
Franquet at Lagny, and had about two hundred men in 
his command. Forced to choose between following the 
captains in their abandonment of Compiegne and act- 
ing upon her own impulse to fight for France wherever 
help was most needed, Joan did not hesitate, though 

^ The father of Agnes Sorel was lord of Coudun. Steenackers, 
dgnes Sorel, 109. 
^ Sorel, 167 ; Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. Ixxxiii. ; Chastellain, ii. 39. 



216 JOAN OF ARC. 

St. John's Day was only a month away. They told hei 
that she had too few soldiers even to force her way 
through the Anglo-Burgundian outposts, some of which 
were already skirmishing on the east bank of the Oise. 
"By my staff, there are enough of us," she said. "I 
will go to see my good friends at Compiegne." She left 
Crepy at midnight, and reached Compiegne in safety at 
the dawn of Tuesday, May 23.^ 

An hour or two afterwards she went to mass in the 
May 23 church of St. James, close by her lodgings. 
1430. Having confessed and communicated, she took 

her stand by one of the pillars of the church, and spoke 
to some of the townspeople, and to a crowd of children 
who gathered about her. Those who heard her used 
often to tell the story, until, more than sixty years after- 
wards, it was taken down from the lips of two old men 
who, as youths, had been in the church that morning. 
"My children and dear friends," so Joan said, according 
to the old men's story, "I tell you that they have sold 
and betrayed me, and that soon I shall be delivered to 
death. I beg you to pray God for me, since I shall 
never more have power to serve the king or the kingdom 
of France." 2 Probably the story was colored by the 
happenings of that afternoon. Joan's presentiment could 
hardly have been as definite as the story represents it, 
or she would not have gone out to battle on that very 
day. Beyond doubt, however, she was sad and disheart- 
ened, more for the cowardice of the captains who had 
abandoned Compiegne than by reason of her approach- 
ing capture.^ 

\ Sorel, 333 ; P. iv. 32, Cagny. 

2 P. iv. 272. See Bouchart, Chron. Bretagne, 189. The story was 
taken down in 1498. One of the men is said to have been ninety- 
eight years old at the time, the other eighty-six. The age of the 
first was probably somewhat exaggerated. 

8 P. i. 116, J.'s test. P. iv. 438, St. Remy, and 443, Chastellain, 
assert the contrary, but doubtless only reflect Burgundian gossip. 



COMPIEGNE. 217 

From dawn until the middle of the afternoon Joan 
stayed in Compiegne, preparing for the sally which she 
was to lead. With whom originated the idea of a sally 
we do not know; it was not directly counseled by Joan's 
voices, and after the event Flavy had no desire to claim 
the plan as his own. The Anglo -Burgundians were 
many times as numerous as the garrison, and the chance 
of a successful battle was small. Perhaps only a recon- 
noissance was intended, perhaps Flavy wished to try the 
miraculous power of his new ally ; it may be that Joan 
had a return of confidence at sight of the enemy, or it 
may be that the nervous strain which even she must have 
felt made her impatient to strike, and settle her fate. 
She was a girl but little over eighteen years old. 

As has been said, the besieging forces on the opposite 
bank of the Oise lay in three camps, ^ the Picards directly 
in front of the town, the Flemings and Burgundians 
above, the English below. The French intended to 
strike at the centre ; what they meant to do afterwards is 
not clear. Flavy ordered archers and men with arblasts 
to take post in high-sided boats, ranged along the east 
bank of the river under the walls of the town. These 
men, with the gunners on the walls, were to open fire 
upon the besiegers if they came within range, and to pro- 
tect the retreat of Joan's force in case of its repulse. ^ 

At four o'clock or thereabouts in the long May after- 
noon, Joan led out her small party. Richly dressed as 
usual, wearing a cloak of cloth of gold over her armor, 
she rode her dappled gray horse through the gate of the 
city ^ and across the bridge, and issued from the boule- 
vard or fortification which covered its western end. 
With her were about five hundred soldiers. Half a mile 
back from the river was the Picard camp at Margny. 

At once she led her men to the attack. The Picards 

^ Beside tbe reserves at Coudun. 2 p^ y^ jyg^ 

« P. iv. 428 ; 438, St. Remy ; 444, Chastellain. 



218 JOAN OF AEC. 

were taken by surprise, many of them having no time 
to seize tlieir arms. Thrown into confusion, some fled, 
others tried to rally. 

The noise of the battle, as well as the arrival of fugi- 
tives, soon gave the alarm to the other divisions of the 
besiegers. At the time of the French sortie, John of 
Luxemburg, who commanded the Flemings at Clairoix, 
was riding with a small escort to visit the Picard com- 
mander. Seeing his peril, he dashed to his assistance, 
sending back at the same time to Clairoix for reinforce- 
ments. 

At Margny the fighting went on with varying fortune, 
thouoh the French seem to have had the best of it. 
Doubtless they were outnmnbered, even by the Picards 
alone, but they made up for their weakness in numbers 
by the suddenness of their attack. It was otherwise 
when Luxemburg's soldiers from Clairoix fell upon their 
right flank. The odds became at least five to one against 
Joan ; she charged upon the Burgundians and again beat 
them back, but the battle was going against her, and 
before long she was forced toward the boulevard. Her 
men began to waver and to cry out for retreat. Joan 
bade them be quiet, and told them that, if they would, 
they might still win a victory. Whether she believed 
what she said, or spoke only to encourage the troops, it is 
hard to tell. 

While she was struggling against the Picards and 
Luxemburg, the English came up from their camp at 
Venette and fell upon her left flank and rear. The odds 
against her were become at least eight to one, and, worse 
than the hostile odds, the advancing English were min- 
gled with the retreating French, so that the latter found 
it hard to get back into the boulevard, while Flavy's 
archers dared not shoot into the confused mass of friends 
and foes. Not unnaturally the French were panic- 
stricken, and saved themselves as best they might. Al- 



COMPIEGNE. 219 

most alone Joan minded her duty. "Passing the nature 
of woman/' wrote a Burgundian chronicler, "she did 
great feats, and took great pains to save her company 
from loss, staying behind them like a captain, and like 
the bravest of the troop." ^ 

As the fleeing soldiers rushed through the entrance of 
the boulevard, with the English pressing upon them, 
Flavy took fright for the safety of the town. If once the 
English should enter the boulevard, it would be hard to 
keep them from crossing the bridge into Compiegne itself. 
Though he could see Joan and a few others fighting in 
the rear of the fugitives, in order to cover their escape, 
he dared not wait for their arrival, but ordered the bar- 
riers to be closed. Perhaps he hoped that those who 
were shut out could swim across the river to the boats 
stationed along the city's walls. Some did so, but for a 
man in armor such an escape was hardly possible, espe- 
cially as the English and Burgundians were crowding 
close. Seeing the barriers shut, and that she could not 
retreat directly into Compiegne, Joan tried to cut her 
way through the Burgundians into the meadows that bor- 
dered the Oise above the boulevard. Even had she suc- 
ceeded, she could hardly have got clear of her enemies ; 
but she did not succeed. They surrounded her, some 
snatching at her clothes, others grasping her bridle-rein, 
each one demanding that she should give up herself to 
him. "I have given myself to another than you, and to 
him I will keep my oath," she answered. A Picard 
archer, attached to the troop of the bastard of Wandonne, 
seized her by her brilliant cloak and dragged her from 
her horse. Her squire Anion and one or two others tried 
to remount her, but they themselves were at once taken 
prisoners, while she was seized by Wandonne himself, 
anxious for such a booty.^ 

J P. iv. 446, Chastellain. 

2 For Joan's capture see P. i. 116, J.'s test.; iv. 34, Cagny ; 92, 



220 JOAN OF ARC. 

As soon as she was captured, Joan was taken to the 
Picard camp at Margny, from which she had been beaten 
off only an hour before. The battle was quite over; it 
would have been folly for Flavy to sally out and try to 
retake Joan, while the Burgundians were not ready to 
follow up their victory by an attempt to storm Com- 
pi^gne. All rushed to Margny after their prisoner, 
shouting in three or four languages their delight at their 
unexpected success. Philip had just come up with the 
reserves, too late for the battle, just in time to hear the 
good news. He went at once to the place where Joan 
was held, and spoke with her for a little time ; what they 
said, the Burgundian chronicler was too excited to re- 
member, or, as is quite probable, did not care to repeat. 
Joan's capture ended her uncertainty, and relaxed the 
strain which her nerves had borne for more than a month. 
Its first eifect may well have been to raise her spirits, and 
very likely she spoke to the duke as she had written to 
him a year before, words which the men of his party 
would prefer to forget. It was growing dark, and Philip 
soon went back to Coudun. Joan was given in charge to 
John of Luxemburg, and was taken to his quarters for 
the night. 1 

Since the capture of St. Pierre le Moustier, Joan's 
warfare had been a failure, broken only by the defeat of 
Franquet at Lagny. Her voices had spoken to her almost 
daily, and she had been as instant as ever in obeying 
them; indeed, her obedience had been more costly when 
they foretold her capture than when they spoke only of 

J. Chartier ; 261 ; 401, Monstrelet ; 438, St. Remy ; 444, Chastellain ; 
458, Fauquemberque ; v. 176 ; Quicherat, Ap. nouv., 85 ; Sorel, 191. 
There seems no sufficient reason to suppose that Flavy betrayed 
Joan, though he may not have been very zealous for her safety. 

^ P. iv. 402, Monstrelet ; 447, Chastellain. The latter's account is 
evidently borrowed from that given by the former. See, also, Jeau 
Jouffroy, Chron. Belg. ine'd., iii. 138 ; Rev, Hist., t. xix. 64. 



CO^VIPIEGNE 221 

immediate success. But her voices did not make her a 
great general. Her theory of war, as far as she had a 
theory, consisted only in seeking out the enemy, wherever 
he might be, fighting him as soon as found, and never 
admitting the possibility of defeat. She had not ex- 
pected that God would dispense with the need of human 
assistance. "If God wills to free the French, there is 
no need of the soldiers you ask for," one of her examiners 
had told her at Poitiers. "In God's name," she had 
answered, "the men at arms will fight, and God will 
give the victory." From St. Loup to Eheims the men 
at arms had fought, some of them, at least, in God's 
name, and they had had the victory. After Hheims they 
had seldom been allowed to fight either in God's name or 
in any other, and their enemies had generally gotten the 
victory. The more urgently Joan asked for men, or 
asked even permission to go against the English, the 
more hostile became La Tremoille and his friends, through 
fear lest her success should bring about their overthrow, 
and through very shame for their treachery which her 
demands forced them to expose. Just after her capture 
the archbishop wrote to the men of Eheims to tell them 
the news. He said that Joan had been taken because she 
would not listen to reason, but did everything to please 
herself. A young shepherd from the mountains of Ge- 
vaudan was come to the king, he added, who professed 
quite as much as Joan ever had done, to wit, that he had 
commandment to go with the king's soldiers, and that 
without doubt the English and Burgundians should be 
overthrown. The shepherd declared that God had al- 
lowed Joan to be taken, so the archbishop said, because 
of the pride with which she was puffed up, and because 
of the rich clothes which she wore : she had not done 
what God had bidden her, but had done her own will in- 
stead.^ 

1 P. V. 168. 



222 JOAN OF ARC. 

Eather more than a year afterward, the shepherd was 
taken prisoner, and was exhibited in Paris before he was 
dispatched, probably by drowning in the Seine. ^ There 
is no reason to suppose the half -crazy wretch responsible 
for his words about Joan ; he merely repeated the lesson 
which the archbishop or La Tremoille had caused him to 
be taught. 

1 P. V. 169 et seq. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

NEGOTIATIONS FOR JOAN'S PURCHASE. 

In modern times the disposal of a prisoner of war be« 
longs to the nation whose subjects make the capture. By 
the rules of war such a prisoner may be securely kept 
until peace is declared,^ and thus he may be prevented 
from doing further injury to his captors. Ordinarily, he 
must be treated with no more harshness than is needed to 
secure his safe -keeping, and when the war is over he is 
freely released. In the Middle Ages the rules of war 
were quite different. A prisoner was the property of 
his captor, often very valuable property, and he usually 
regained his liberty, whether during the war or after- 
wards, only by payment of a ransom agreed upon be- 
tween himself and his owner. In the mean time he niio-ht 
be bought for speculation,^ he might be pledged to secure 
his captor's debts, or delivered in payment of them. 
If he was the favorite of his royal master, or if his ser- 
vices were greatly needed in war, he might hope to 
get a part of his ransom from the royal treasury, but, in 
most cases, to regain his liberty he must sell his estates, 
or beg or borrow from his friends. Until his ransom 
was paid, he was at his captor's disposal. Even in the 
Middle Ages it was considered hardly proper to maltreat 
severely a distinguished prisoner, unless for exceptional 
reasons, but it is clear that the prisoner owed his good 

^ In most cases, two nations at war with each other provide for 
an exchange of prisoners, but such an exchange cannot be insisted 
on as matter of right. 

2 See Quicherat, Rodrigo de Villandrando, 50. 



224 JOAN OF ARC. 

treatment cliiefly to his commercial value. ^ His death 
was the destruction of his captor's property, and so it 
came to pass that a prisoner of war, having means or 
importance, was usually treated with far less rigor and 
cruelty than seems natural to so harsh and cruel an age. 
A poor man or a common soldier was generally killed 
outright, or, if he were taken near his home, was some- 
times tortured on the spot, until his family paid for his 
life whatever they had. 

Five persons were concerned in Joan of Arc as a pris- 
oner : the Picard archer, who pulled her from her horse ; 
Lionel of Wandonne, in whose troop the archer served; 
John of Luxemburg, commanding the corps in which 
Lionel was a captain; Philip of Burgundy, commander- 
in-chief of the army; and Henry VI., in whose name the 
siege of Compiegne was carried on. 

The Picard archer had no financial interest in the mat- 
ter; whatever he did was done for his captain's hand. 
Just what was the relation between Wandonne and Luxem- 
burg is not known, but Joan seems in some way to have 
become the property of them both. Very likely there 
was a written contract between them, providing for the 
division of the ransom which might be exacted from any 
prisoner. Such conti-acts were common.^ 

John of Luxemburg and Lionel of Wandonne were 
men of the age. Luxemburg was the younger son of a 
noble house, who had inherited a part of the ancestral 
estate, and by his ability had largely increased his pos- 
sessions. He was fond of fighting, and had lost an eye 
in battle ; was a skillful commander and a wary politi- 
cian, not quite so fickle and faithless, perhaps, as some 
of his neighbors. There is no reason to suppose that he 
was cruel for cruelty's sake, but he vras altogether ruth' 

^ See Beaurepaire, Recherches sur le proch de condamnation de /., 
29. 

2 See Stevenson, Wars Eng., ii. 44. 



NEGOTIATIONS FOR JOAN'S PUKCHASE. 225 

less and unscrupulous, ready to hang a captured garrison 
without mercy, or to kill a prisoner, if his interests re- 
quired it. At this time he was about forty years old.^ 

The bastard of Wandonne held a much lower social 
position. Illegitimate sons of princely families, like the 
Bastard of Orleans or the Great Bastard of Burgundy, 
were favored men, but Lionel's father was himself ob- 
scure. The young man had long followed John of Lux- 
emburg, and had been advanced by his master. Seven 
years before, he had distinguished himself in a tourna- 
ment with one of the best French knights, both jousting 
and fighting on foot with a battle-axe. Some time after- 
wards, in a real battle, he had been severely wounded by 
the thrust of a lance, and so was lame of one arm. He 
was a hard-fighting soldier, not quite a brigand, inasmuch 
as he always followed Luxemburg's fortunes.^ 

For two or three days Joan was kept at Clairoix in 
Luxemburg's quarters.^ The situation was too exposed 
for safety, however; the garrison might make 
another sortie, or Joan might escape. Wandonne June, 
was a poor man, and had no place fit for keep- ^'^' ^' 
ing so important a prisoner. Luxemburg was a great lord 
with many castles. The two captors apparently were well 
agreed; Joan was sent under strong escort some twenty 
miles northeast of Compiegne to Beaulieu, a stronghold 
belonging to Luxemburg of which Lionel seems to have 

^ Yallet de Viriville, ii. 165 ; Gomart, /. au chateau de Beaurevoir, 
185 ; Monstrelet, Bk. II. chaps, xv., exi. ; and see Monstrelet gener- 
ally, as he was in Luxemburg's service. One of John's prisoners had 
broken parole. The man's mother offered 6,000 crowns ransom, but 
Luxemburg cut off the delinquent's head and carried it on a spear to 
the door where the mother was waiting for her son. Lm-e Tralii- 
sons, 175. 

2 Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. viii. ; Fenin, ann. 1423. 

3 On May 26 Luxemburg moved from Clairoix to Margny. Mon- 
strelet, Bk. II. ch. Ixxxviii. This may have been the occasion of 
sending Joan away, as Margny was even more exposed than Clairoix 
to an attack from Compiegne. 



226 JOAN OF ARC. 

been captain ; thus the rights of all parties were secured.^ 
The life of a prisoner is not pleasant, and brutal soldiers 
can hardly have had much respect for a girl whom they 
believed to be an unsexed witch ; but there is no reason 
to suppose that at Beaulieu Joan was treated with any 
especial cruelty. Undoubtedly she was a rich prize, and 
both her captors believed themselves in luck.^ 

The mediaBval method of treating prisoners of war 
had one marked inconvenience, well illustrated by the 
case of Joan of Arc. Luxemburg and Wandonne both 
looked on her simply as a means of making money. That 
they might get their money she must be freed, and so 
allowed to rejoin the French forces in the field. This 
might be a matter of indifference to a soldier, or even to 
a general, but it was a serious matter to the English, who 
had suffered terribly from her prowess in the year just 
passed. For them it was necessary at all hazards to pre- 
vent her ransom, and no time was to be lost, as it seemed 
certain that Charles VII. would act at once. 

To everybody the capture of Joan was a matter of 
interest, and on the evening of her capture the duke of 
Burgundy wrote to the men of St. Quentin and told them 
the great news, which exposed, he said, the mistaken 
and foolish belief of all those who had put faith in Joan's 
deeds. ^ That night or the next morning, John of Lux- 
emburg wrote to his brother Louis, bishop of Therouanne 
and chancellor of France for Henry VI.* The bishop 
was in Paris, the regent Bedford at Rouen, but the former 
did not wait for orders. He saw at once the danger of 
Joan's release, and acted within four and twenty hours. 

To ask simply that Joan should not be held to ransom, 

1 P. iv. 402, Monstrelet ; Monstrelet, Bk. II. cli. cclii. See Lafons 
de M^lieocq, Une cite picarde au moyen age, 105. 

2 Apparently she was attended by Anion, her squire. P. iv. 35^ 
Cagny. 

8 P. V. 166. 4 P. iv. 458. 



NEGOTIATIONS FOR JOAN'S PURCHASE. 227 

would be asking her captors to disregard almost universal 
custom. Some reason must be found for treating her 
differently from other prisoners, and such a reason was 
not far to seek. The authorities of the University of 
Paris, most of them Burgundian partisans, held confer- 
ence with the vicar-general of the inquisitor of France, 
and a letter was sent off to Philip on May 26, only three 
days after Joan's capture. Written in the name of the 
vicar-general, it reminded the duke that all loyal Chris- 
tian princes were bound to root out heresy, and to save 
simple Christian folk from scandal. It went on to re- 
hearse that a certain woman named Joan, called by the 
enemies of the realm the Maid, had brought scandal upon 
the honor of God and upon holy religion, to the destruc- 
tion of the souls of many simple Christians. This woman 
was in the duke's hands, or in the hands of his vassals. 
Wherefore the vicar- general begged the duke and the 
vassals aforesaid, acting as true guardians of the faith, 
and defenders of God's honor, to send this Joan to hins 
without delay. The letter concluded with a formal sum- 
mons to all persons concerned, to bring Joan before the 
inquisitor and the University of Paris. ^ 

In treating of the trial and condemnation of Joan, it 
is customary to speak of the accusation of witchcraft 
brought against her as if it had been a mere pretext, 
invented to accomplish her ruin. To suppose this, how- 
ever, is to misconceive utterly the minds of men in the 
fifteenth century, and to attribute to them the knowledge 
of the nineteenth. To Joan's contemporaries, to Joan 
herself, witchcraft was a crime quite as real as larceny, 
and, being real, naturally much more dangerous to the 
community, and especially hateful to God. This no one 
thought of doubting. It might be difficult to persuade a 
very sensible man of the guilt of a particular person 
accused, and he might treat a given case as one of insan- 

1 P. i. 12. 



228 JOAN OF AEO. 

ity or of Imposture, while a credulous man would find 
witches at every turn ; both believed with equal assurance 
that witchcraft was a reality. 

To an Englishman or to a Burgundian partisan the 
evidence of witchcraft in Joan's case was overwhelming, 
and one of her enemies could hardly have thought her 
innocent. She had done great things, deeds too marvel- 
ous for the work of a simple peasant girl. All Europe 
was full of the wildest legends about her, and the Eng- 
lish soldiers had seen with their own eyes quite enough 
to make these legends probable. Plainly she had gained 
her victories by the aid either of God or of the Devil. 
No man is willing to believe that God is against him, 
and so Joan's enemies set down her supernatural helper 
as the Devil without possibility of doubt. How much 
their belief was changed as they came to know her better, 
we shall consider hereafter, but, without seeing her, every 
one of them presumed, and presumed reasonably, that 
she was a witch. 

Witch or no witch, neither Luxemburg nor Wandonne 
proposed to sell her except at a high price. The English 
council could hardly have expected that she should be 
presented to them as a gift, and the inquisitor's letter to 
Philip probably was not intended to accomplish the 
delivery of Joan to the English, but only to prevent her 
captors from putting her to ransom before the English 
had time to interfere. So far as is known, no particular 
attention was paid to the inquisitor's summons, and the 
agents of Henry VI. speedily began negotiations on a 
more substantial basis. 

In the council which represented Henry in France 
were men of two sorts. There were Englishmen, trying 
to extend English power, sturdy patriots, some of them, 
even if mistaken ones. There were Frenchmen, mem- 
bers of the old Burgundian political party, who hated an 
Armagnac worse than they could possibly hate any for- 



NEGOTIATIONS FOR JOAN'S PURCHASE. 229 

eigner. Throughout France party feeling had greatly 
abated, as has been said already, and most Frenchmen 
were coming to see that English rule was an impossibility, 
and that the hope of the country lay with the loyalists. 
The plainer this became, the more closely drew together 
the little band of anti-Armagnac politicians, the fierce 
and bitter defenders of a lost cause. Except for the 
savage mob of Paris, they had no popular support, and 
even the mob of Paris was beginning to waver. When 
an emissary was needed to negotiate for the purchase of 
Joan, he was naturally chosen, not from the English, but 
from this band of Anglo-Burgundian Frenchmen. 

Peter Cauchon was born in Champagne of a family 
without particular distinction. He had been a hard stu- 
dent in the University of Paris, and had there taken his 
degree in arts and canon law. Having gained the re- 
spect of its authorities, he was named its Rector as early 
as 1403. A priest of learning, energy, and ability, as 
well as of correct life, he had filled important positions 
for many years. Firmly attached to the Burgundian 
party, he had been one of the commission appomted in 
1413 to enforce the laws against the Armagnacs, and 
he had incited the Parisian mob to slaughter them. He 
had, therefore, been banished when the Armagnacs re- 
gained power, but had been protected both by John the 
Fearless and by Philip the Good, and by the former had 
been sent to the council of Constance, there to defend 
the righteousness of his patron's murder of the duke of 
Orleans. In time he rose to higher offices, and became 
vidame of Chartres and master of the court of requests. 
After the Burgundians had retaken Paris, he again stood 
high in the university, represented it at court, and was 
named its Conservator. Though a politician by choice, 
he received ecclesiastical preferment, being helped by 
Philip to the bishopric of Beauvais, and thus becoming 
one of the spiritual peers of France. Since the treaty of 



230 JOAN OF ARC. 

Troyes, without neglecting Lis Biirgundian friends, lie 
had devoted himself especially to the English, and had 
labored incessantly for Henry VI. in his council and else- 
where. When Charles came to northern France in the 
summer of 1429, the people of Beauvais, Cauchon's epis- 
copal city, rose against him and drove him out.^ Thus 
humiliated, he sought the vacant archbishopric of Rouen, 
and had persuaded the privy council of England to rec- 
ommend him for the place to the court of Rome. At the 
time of Joan's capture, he was probably between fifty 
and sixty years old.^ 

The character of Cauchon is manifested plainly by his 
career. Thoroughly worldly, a bitter partisan, he hated 
the followers of Charles VII. with a pitiless hatred, while 
he owed Joan in particular a hearty grudge for the loss 
of his diocese and its revenues. It needs no argument to 
prove that his belief in her possession by the Devil was 
sincere ; and his tireless energy and eminent respectabil- 
ity made him a most suitable agent to treat for her sur- 
render to the English. 

Cauchon was a man of the world, and therefore not 
likely to believe that Luxemburg and Wandonne would 
give up their prisoner, even if a witch, without the pay- 
ment of a good sum of money. Before long, at any rate, 
he began to bid for her purchase, just as other prisoners 
were bid for at that time, and just as stocks and houses 
are bid for to-day. Although he was offering money, 
he still laid stress upon Joan's witchcraft and heresy, 
thus seeking to cheapen the wares he was buying. Econ- 
omy was not his only motive. While the charges made 

^ The people of Beauvais inserted in their litany this suffrage : 
" From the cruelty of the English, Good Lord deliver us." Peche- 
nard, Jean Juvenal, 156. 

^ Cte. de Marsy, Pierre Cauchon ; Beaurepaire, Notes sur lesjuges, 
etc., du proces de J., 12 ; Coville, Les Cabochiens, 149, 152, 188, 192, 
215, 386, 398, 404; Monstrelet, Bk. I. eh. ccxliii.; Vallet de V., Charles 
VII., i. 313; Chapotin, J. et les Dominicains, 103. 



NEGOTIATIONS FOR JOAN'S PURCHASE. 231 

against Joan, however sincerely believed, may at first 
have been nothing more than a pretext to get her into the 
hands of the English without paying full price for her, 
they soon had an additional purpose. If the English 
should secure her as an ordinary prisoner of war, she 
would be to them a constant embarrassment. They them- 
selves could hardly refuse a reasonable offer for her ran- 
som, and her name, though she were in captivity, might 
still arouse the enthusiasm of the French soldiers. The 
best thing the English could do with Joan was to dis- 
credit her. Believing her to be a witch, they wished to 
exhibit her as a witch to all Europe, and so discredit not 
only Joan herself, but the king and the cause she had 
served. The plan of trying Joan was formed very soon 
after her capture, though its details were not fixed until 
months afterwards. In the plan Cauchon had a peculiar 
interest. Joan had been taken within the limits of his 
diocese, and might be tried before his tribunal. In every 
way such a proceeding would be agreeable to him. He 
was ambitious and vindictive ; by sitting as judge in one 
of the great trials of the age, he would both gain renown 
and gratify his wish for political and personal revenge. 
He seems to have entered heartily into the plans of his 
employers, having obtained, before beginning his labors, 
the promise of ample wages while engaged in the busi- 
ness.i 

About July 12 he set out from Paris for Philip's 
headquarters, being well supplied with letters j^iy^ 
to the duke and Luxemburg. The University of ^'^^^• 
Paris wrote to Philip, calling his attention to the fact 
that its former letters to him still remained unanswered, 
which neglect in correspondence the authorities of the 
university attributed to the deceitful wiles of the Evil 
One, and to the subtlety of the duke's enemies, who were 
craftily laboring to get Joan out of his hands. The 
* P. T. 194 ; Beaurepaire, RecTierches sur le proces de J., 16. 



232 JOAN OF ARC. 

university prayed God that this might not happen, for 
the true faith had never received so great a hurt, nor 
within the memory of man had so mighty a danger and 
injury come to the reahn, as would arise from her es- 
cape by these damnable means. After complimenting 
the religious zeal of Philip and his ancestors, the letter 
begged him to deliver Joan either to the inqviisitor or to 
the bearer, the Reverend Father in God, my Lord Bishop 
of Beauvais, and so to act for the glory of God, the ad- 
vancement of the true faith, the profit of all good Catho- 
lics, the welfare of the realm, and the duke's own honor. ^ 

The letter of the university to John of Luxemburg 
was much like that sent to Philip. The count was 
thanked for his great service in taking Joan, and was 
reminded of his knightly oath to defend God's honor, the 
Catholic faith, and Holy Church. He, too, was warned 
that his enemies were trying to deliver Joan by craft and, 
which would be still more shameful, by way of purchase 
or ransom. The danger of delay was pointed out, and 
Luxemburg was summoned to deliver her instantly to the 
inquisitor or to the bishop, in order that God might be 
pleased and the people be duly edified.^ 

These pious admonitions were meant to add weight to 
the formal written demand made upon Philip, Luxem- 
burg and Wandonne by Cauchon himseK. This docu- 
ment made slight mention of the nobility of Joan's cap- 
tors; in pretty straightforward fashion the bishop made 
his offer. In King Henry's name and in his own, he 
demanded that the woman, commonly called Joan the 
Maid, be delivered up to the king, so that she might be 
tried by the church for witchcraft and idolatry. Con- 
sidering the charges made against her, she ought not to be 
accounted a prisoner of war, the letter continued, yet as 

1 P. i. 8. 

^ P. i. 10. It is stated that this letter bore date July 14, but prob- 
ably that was the date of its delivery to Luxemburg. See P. i. 14. 



NEGOTIATIONS FOE JOAN'S PURCHASE. 233 

a recompense to those who had taken her Henry VI. 
would freely give six thousand pounds, and an annuity to 
Wandonne of two or three hundred besides. So eager 
was Cauchon, or his English employer, that he did not 
wait to find out whether his terms were accepted or not ; 
in another paragraph of the same document he made 
a larger offer. By the custom of France, if a king or 
prince was made prisoner, the sovereign whose soldiers 
had captured him could buy him for the fixed sum of ten 
thousand pounds. If Luxemburg and the rest were not 
content with the first offer, so Cauchon's letter ran, then, 
although Joan's capture was not like the capture of a 
king or prince, yet in order to buy her the bishop was 
willing to give them proper security for the ten thousand 
pounds. All these letters were publicly handed over to 
the duke and to Luxemburg in the presence of many 
nobles and officers, and the notary whom Cauchon had 
brought with him from Paris made due record of the 
fact.^ It seems that no definite answer was made at the 
time ; John of Luxemburg may have been willing to sell 
Joan for ten thousand pounds, but he wished to see the 
ready money. 

Some of the letters to Philip and Luxemburg men- 
tioned efforts made by the French to ransom Joan. The 
writers imdoubtedly believed that the efforts had been 
made, as they were reasonably to be expected from the 
French court ; nevertheless, the fear of ransom was quite 
uncalled for. Neither the king nor his council, nor any 
of his captains, so far as can be discovered, ever mad« 
the slightest attempt to save her. She had, of course, no 
money of her own ; poor as Charles was, he used to spend 
on his favorites many times the sum needed to ransom 
her, yet he never offered a pound. The plans of the Eng- 
lish soon became evident ; they never j)retended that they 
meant to treat Joan as a prisoner of war, yet the French 
» P. i. 13, 14. 



234 JOAN OF ARC. 

authorities did not even protest against her treatment. 
During the months that her trial lasted, they kept quiet. 
English prisoners were in their hands and retaliation was 
not impossible, yet they did not even threaten it.^ From the 
time of her capture to her death, there came to Joan from 
the king she had crowned, from the council whose orders 
she had obeyed, and from the captains with whom she 
had served, not a word or a sign. Except for a few of her 
enemies who came at last to pity her, she was left alone. 
She lived and died as if king and court and soldiers and 
the French nation had ceased to exist at the moment of 
her capture, and as if there were left to her none but 
enemies. 

Nothing can make the conduct of the French brave 
or honorable, but there is much to explain it. Charles 
had fallen back into the cowardly imbecility from which 
Joan had half roused him only for a moment. At no 
time had he will enough to give him control of his own 
actions. La Tremoille and his followers had passed from 
indifference to suspicion, and from suspicion to dislike, 
until they had come to hate Joan with a hatred meaner 
than that of Cauchon.^ As to Alen9on, the Bastard, La 
Hire, and the rest, they knew that it was hopeless to 
attempt Joan's rescue by force of arms, and they weakly 
left the way of negotiation to the court.^ They had been 
taught that the Devil was exceedingly crafty, and they 
may have been awed by the haunting fear that Joan was 
a witch after all. Among the common people she- was 
not quite forgotten. In a remote part of France, in Dau- 
phiny, these prayers were offered in her behalf : — 

^ See Stevenson, Wars Eng., ii. 178. Charles was at Sens in 
August and September. In the following winter he was at Chinon. 
See Beaucourt, ii. 268, 277, 430. 

2 See Rev. Hist., t. xix. 62. 

' There is no reason to suppose that the capture of Louviers by 
La Hire in October was any part of an attempt to rescue Joan. See 
Beaucourt, ii. 255 } Vallet de V., Charles VII., ii. 244. 



NEGOTIATIONS FOE JOAN's PURCHASE. 235 

" Almighty and everlasting God, who of Thine unspeak- 
able mercy and marvelous goodness hast caused a virgin 
to arise for the uplifting and preservation of France and 
for the confusion of its enemies, and hast permitted her 
by their hands to be cast into prison, as she labored 
to obey Thy holy commandments; Grant unto us, we 
beseech Thee, through the intercession of the ever blessed 
Virgin and all the Saints, that she may be delivered from 
their power unhurt, and finally may accomplish the same 
work which Thou hast commanded her. 

*' Give ear. Almighty God, to the prayers of Thy people, 
and through the sacrament of which we have partaken, 
and by the intercession of the ever blessed Virgin and all 
the Saints, break in pieces the fetters of the Maid, who 
labored to perform the work which Thou hadst appointed 
her, and now by our enemies is held in prison. Grant 
that she by Thy goodness and mercy may go forth to fin- 
ish unhurt that which remains for her to accomplish, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord." ^ 

The prayers of the people of Dauphiny were unknown 
to Joan. For a year she lived in prison, for many months 
in constant physical distress, at nearly every moment of 
the day and night in danger of the foulest indignity and 
outrage, for weeks in daily danger of the rack, daily 
subjected to the keenest mental torture which experts 
could devise, with death at the end. During all this time, 
her every word and act were watched by the shrewdest of 
her enemies, eager to catch her in error by fair means or 
by foul, and more than once these enemies believed them* 
selves successful. It is plain, at any rate, that Joan's 
successes from her capture to her death were not helped 
by generals or soldiers, by friends or enthusiastic crowds. 
As to the aid of man, she stood alone. 

1 Landry d'Arc, Culte de J., 25. It is said that there were public 
prayers and a procession at Tours in the week which followed J.'s 
capture. See P. v. 253. 



CHAPTER XVni. 

BEAUREVOIR. 

Little is known of Joan's life at Beaulieu, where she 
was kept for some weeks. The siege of Corn- 
October, piegne continued and, quite naturally, the prison- 

'^' ers were entertained by their warders with reports 
of the progress made by the Burgundians. Aulon, Joan's 
squire, was still with her. Becoming discouraged, he said 
to her one day : " That poor town of Conipiegne, which 
you loved so well, is to be handed over this time to the 
enemies of France." Joan was not disheartened so 
easily. " It shall not be," she said ; " for none of the 
places which the King of Heaven by my means has put 
into the hands of the gentle king Charles shall be retaken 
by his enemies, if he will but be diligent in guarding 
them." 1 The proviso is characteristic of Joan. Firmly 
as she trusted in the aid of Heaven, she was far too prac- 
tical to believe that it dispensed with the need of the 
utmost human effort. 

While she was at Beaulieu, the negotiations for her 
purchase nearly had an unexpected end. Joan almost 
escaped. She was shut up in a tower of the castle, appar- 
ently in a chamber closed by planking. Perhaps the 
boards were hurriedly fastened together ; in some way or 
other she slipped out between two of them, and the way 
of escape seemed clear. She was about to bolt the door, 
so as to shut up her warders in the tower, when the porter 
appeared, and she was taken back to prison.^ 

Her attempt had come so near success that John of 
1 P. iv. 35, Cagny. 2 p. £. i63, J.'g test 



BEAUREVOIR. 237 

Luxemburg would let her stay in Beaulieu no longer, but 
removed her to Beaurevoir, his principal castle. This was 
in Picardy, a fortress recently built or enlarged, with high 
walls, great towers, and a deep moat. In one of the towers 
Joan was confined.^ 

At this time Luxemburg's wife and aunt were living in 
Beaurevoir. Some twelve years earlier he had married 
Joanna of Bethune, the rich widow of Robert of Bar. 
Throughout her life the countess was well disposed to the 
royalists, and her first husband, killed in fighting the Eng- 
lish at Agincourt, had been the feudal overlord of Dom- 
remy.2 Luxemburg's maiden aunt, commonly called the 
demoiselle of Luxemburg, was an elderly woman having 
a great reputation for sanctity. Though she was willing 
to accept a pension from the English, it is not likely that 
she took their side very strongly.^ 

When Joan was brought to the castle, these ladies, 
like the rest of the Anglo-Burgundian world, undoubtedly 
believed her to be a witch. After they came to know 
her, their curiosity and horror were turned to pity. Her 
dress, directly forbidden by Scripture, greatly shocked 
them, and they tried to persuade her to change it, offering 
to give her a woman's dress, or cloth out of which to make 
one. She was grateful for their kindness, and would have 
yielded to them, as she afterwards said, sooner than to 
any other ladies in France, except her queen. She an- 
swered them, however, that she had not God's leave to 
change her dress, and also that the time for changing it 
was not yet come.* 

Thus favored by the ladies of Luxemburg, Joan's im- 
prisonment at Beaurevoir was probably less harsh thaF 
any she suffered before or afterwards, but an incident in 

^ See Gomart, /. au chateau de Beaurevoir, 

2 Vallet de V., ii. 172 ; Gomart, 190 ; Fenin, ann. 1423. 

^ Stevenson, Wars Eng., ii. (536). 

* P. i. 95, 96, J.'s test. 



238 JOAN OF ARC. 

it, known almost by chance, shows what was her life in 
prison, even at its best. Among the retainers of John of 
Luxemburg was Haimond of Macy, a squire then living 
at Beaurevoir. Either he was one of Joan's warders, or 
he was often sent to her by his master ; in any case, he 
was curious to see her and to talk with her. Macy was a 
rough young soldier ; Joan, even if a witch, was a young 
girl to whom, on account of her position and supposed 
character, he owed no respect. Often, as he testified, he 
used to hustle her in joke, and, though she kept him off 
as well as she could, he would thrust his hands into her 
bosom, that he might feel of her breasts, probably in mere 
wanton jest, without intending further violence. How far 
Joan wore men's clothes in direct obedience to her heav- 
enly voices, how far in human prudence to keep herself 
from violence, how far as the only means of obeying a 
divine command to keep herself a virgin, it is not possible 
to say. Very likely all motives guided her, and her answer 
to the ladies of Luxemburg, that the time had not come 
for changing her dress, may well have been made after 
a struggle with Haimond of Macy or with another of 
her keepers. Even upon Macy she made an impression.' 
Twenty-five years afterwards, he was summoned to teU 
what he knew about her. The depositions of nearly all 
the other witnesses called at the same time, after record- 
ing their answers to the questions asked, close with the 
words, " And the witness knows nothing further." Macy's 
deposition, after answering the usual questions concern- 
ing Joan, ends thus : " And the witness believes that she 
is in paradise." ^ 

While Joan was held at Beaurevoir, Cauchon urged 

forward the negotiations for her purchase. He was very 

busy over the matter, though it is not known what means 

of persuasion he used, beyond the offer of money. Early 

1 P. iii. 121, Macy. 



BEAUREVOIR. 239 

in August died the duke of Brabant,^ cousin of Philip of 
Burgundy, who at once gave Luxemburg charge of the 
siege of Conipiegne and started to take possession of his 
kinsman's estates. So earnest was the bishop that he 
could not wait for the duke's return, but posted after him, 
apparently to secure his consent to the proposed bargain. 
The inheritance of Brabant was disputed ; Philip's aunt 
claimed a part of it, but yielded when she recognized 
the greatly superior strength of her nephew. Perhaps 
Cauchon assured Philip that the English would support 
his pretensions ; at any rate, the succession was peacefully 
settled. The duke got the lion's share, and another part 
was secured to the old demoiselle of Luxemburg, from 
whom John was sure presently to inherit.^ These mat- 
ters may or may not have affected the fate of Joan ; at 
about the time they were arranged the bargain for her 
sale was completed. Her price was fixed at ten thousand 
pounds, the larger sum mentioned by Cauchon in his letter 
to Luxemburg, but ten thousand pounds in hard money, 
and not a bond for ten thousand, as Cauchon had pro- 
posed. Beside this price, an annuity was secured to 
Wandonne.^ 

The bargain once completed, the English were in no 
hurry to pay the price, as ten thousand pounds in ready 
money was a sum not easily come at. The English treas- 
ury was none too full, and Henry's council did not pro- 
pose to take Joan's price out of it. Henry was king 
of France as well as of England. Joan had rebelled 
against him in France, and, so far as was possible, France 
should bear the cost of putting down the rebellion. To- 
ward the end of August the estates of the province of 

^ He died on August 4, and the news of his death reached Philip 
of Burgundy on August 15. Beaucourt, ii. 38, n. ; St. Remy, ch» 
cbd. 

2 See Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. xciii. ; P. v. 194. 

« P. iii. 134, Manchon. 



240 JOAN OF ARC. 

Normandy were summoned to meet at Rouen, and there- 
upon were asked to grant one hundred and twenty thou- 
sand pounds, of which sum ten thousand pounds were 
especially appropriated " to the payment of the price of 
Joan the Maid, who is said to be a witch." The grant 
was voted, early in September the tax was assessed, and 
throughout the autumn of 1430 its collection went on ; 
apparently the money did not come in very freely.^ 

Joan was not kept in ignorance of the plans for her 
sale. When Macy joked with her, he probably amused 
himseK by threatening her with the English. Once, at 
least, Cauchon himself came to Beaurevoir,^ and Joan 
could follow step by step the progress of his negotiations. 
To be delivered into the hands of the English seemed the 
most horrible fate that could befall her. She knew well 
how they feared and hated her, and, while she hardly 
hated them in return, for she seems to have been really 
incapable of hating any one, yet she dreaded them with 
the vague horror then felt for men of a hostile race and 
an unknown tongue. As time went on, and her sale 
became an assured fact, she was fearfully distressed. 

She appealed to her voices, but even the comfort they 
gave her could not calm her. For more than eighteen 
years she had lived an active life out of doors, and the 
confinement wore upon her nerves. Beside confinement 
and insult and fear of the English, she was sick at heart 
over the news from Compiegne. Closer and closer did 
John of Luxemburg press the siege, and every Burgun- 
dian advance, every success of the besiegers was rehearsed 
to her, doubtless with exaggeration. The city would 
soon be taken, so they told her, and then all the dwellers 
in it, from seven years old and upwards, would be put to 
the sword or burned in its destruction. In her distress 

^ P. V. 178 ; Beaurepaire, Etats de Normandie sous la domination 
anglaise, 40. 
2 P. V. 194. 



BEAUEEVOIR. 241 

she cried to St. Catherine and St. Margaret, " How can 
God leave to perish these good people of Compiegne, who 
have been so faithful to their lord ? " 

From the tower in which she was imprisoned she could 
look out over the country. As her distress increased, 
she was seized with a desire to throw herself from this 
tower, either through a window or from the top of it, 
where she may have been allowed to walk. The height 
was great, yet there was a slight chance of reaching the 
ground in safety, and so of escaping and bringing help 
again to her good friends in Compiegne. That the fall 
should kiU her was at least probable, but rather than be 
in the hands of the English, she preferred to die. 

As in every other action of her life, so in this, she took 
counsel of her voices, and it is noteworthy that, morbid 
and nervous as was her condition, they firmly and jsersist- 
ently forbade her to throw herself from the tower. Day 
after day she appealed to them, and always received the 
same answer. God would aid both her and the men of 
Compiegne, so the voice of St. Catherine told her. " Since 
God will aid the people of Compiegne, I would I were 
there," said Joan. "You must take what comes to you 
without repining, for you shall not be delivered until you 
have seen the English king," she heard the voice reply. 
For once the poor girl's will rebelled against her heavenly 
visitors. " I do not wish to see him. I would rather die 
than fall into the hands of the English," she cried in her 
distress. 

The long struggle between her wishes and her counsel- 
ors came to an end. Hearing, it may be, some fresh 
piece of bad news, dizzied, perhaps, by looking over the 
sheer walls of the tower, and unaccustomed to stand in 
high places, she commended herself to God and our Lady 
and jumped. The shock stunned her ; when she came to 
her senses, she was again in the hands of her captors. 
No bones were broken, but she was badly shaken, and 



242 JOAN OF ARC. 

for two or three days could hardly eat or drink. To her 
physical suffering and her old mental distress there was 
now added remorse for her sin in disobeying the com- 
mand of God. St. Catherine soon came to her, however, 
and bade her confess her sin and ask God's pardon for 
it ; then the voice comforted Joan, told her to be of good 
cheer, and promised that she should get well. As to the 
city of Comj)iegne, that should certainly be delivered be- 
fore Martinmas. On hearing these things, Joan gave up 
her wish of dying, took heart, and began to eat ; soon she 
was completely recovered. By the command of St. Cath- 
erine she confessed her sins to the priest and asked God's 
forgiveness ; having done this, she was assured by the 
saint that she was forgiven. 

This conduct of Joan shows plainly the healthiness of 
her temper and of her religion. Though she had a faint 
hope of escaping alive, she knew quite well that to jump 
from the tower offered no reasonable chance of escape, 
except by death. Neither before nor after her leap, in 
spite of her nervous distress, did she ever pretend to her- 
self or to others that she had a right thus to take her 
life in her hands. Having taken it, and thus having 
committed sin, she never sought to justify herself. On 
the other hand, neither to herself nor to others would 
she exaggerate her offense. The temptation had been 
great, she had yielded to it, had confessed her wrong- 
doing, and had been forgiven. Thereafter she let no one 
trouble her in the matter.^ 

Not long afterwards, the English were ready to com- 
plete their purchase of Joan, and Luxemburg was called 
upon to deliver his prisoner. In the latter part of Octo- 
ber, Joan was sent from Beaurevoir to Arras, where, as 
it seems, Philip of Burgundy then held his court.^ Ap- 
parently, she was still in the hands of the Burgundians, 

1 P. i. 110, 150, 160, 169, J.'s test. 

2 Stevenson, Wars Eng., ii. 164. 



BEAUREVOIR. 243 

and was still treated as a prisoner of war. Some of the 
duke's company begged her to put on women's clothes, 
and again she refused.^ A little later she was sent from 
Arras to Le Crotoy, at the mouth of the river Somme, a 
strong fortress which for about seven years had been 
held by the English.^ According to tradition, she was 
visited on her journey by many people, partly out of 
curiosity, partly from sympathy.^ Either at Arras or 
Le Crotoy, or at some place between the two, the Eng- 
lish took their prisoner and paid their money.* 

It seems that the demoiselle of Luxemburg protested 
against Joan's sale to the English,^ and her nephew's 
act has generally been considered to involve the basest 
treachery. The kind old woman's attempt to save from 
suffering and death a poor girl whom she pitied is of a 
piece with what is known of the rest of her life ; but the 
count's act did not transgress the morality of his age. A 
prisoner, as has been said, was a security for a sum of 
money, and could be assigned to another person with as 
little impropriety as that involved in the assignment of a 
modem mortgage. It is true that the count more than 
suspected that Joan's purchasers would not ti*eat her as a 
prisoner of war, but this can hardly be taken as adding 
to his guilt. He would not have considered himself re- 
sponsible for the misuse of property fairly sold, and he 

^ See P. i. 95, 96, J.'s test. John of Pressy, whose name is men- 
tioned by Joan, seems to have left Arras on an embassy to England 
on November 4. Stevenson, Wars Eng., ii. 164 (531, 536). He was 
at Rouen November 24. Beaurepaire, Recherches, 17. 

2 Vallet de V., i. 396. 

3 See P. V. 358 et seq. 

* The money for Joan's purchase was repaid to the keeper of the 
royal chest by the receiver-general of Normandy on December 6. 
It was therefore paid to Luxemburg before that time. Apparently 
the keeper of the chest advanced the cash about October 24. See 
P. V. 190. 

6 P. i. 231. 



244 JOAN OF ARC. 

may well have believed Joan's sale to be an act posi« 
tively virtuous, commended as it was by the authorities 
of the church and by those learned in the law. There 
is no reason to suppose that he was not ready to sell 
Joan to the highest bidder. After Charles VII. had let 
several months go by without even making him an offer 
for her, Luxemburg can hardly be blamed for selling her 
elsewhere. To accuse him of betraying her is to imply 
that loyalty to Charles's cause was his moral duty, an im- 
plication which the confused condition of France makes 
absurd. Whether it be right to treat as betrayal the 
course of the French court, which, having been saved by 
Joan from ruin, let her be sold to the English and by 
them burnt for a witch, without even a diplomatic pro- 
test, is quite another question. John of Luxemburg was 
a hard-fighting nobleman, rather savage and brutal, but 
essentially like others of his class, neither much better 
nor much worse. 

On October 24, probably while Joan was at Arras, a 
French army under Boussac and Vendome marched to 
the relief of Compi^gne ; on the following day it found 
itself face to face with John of Luxemburg, who had 
drawn up his troops to cover the approach to the city. 
While the two armies were thus observing each other, 
the garrison and citizens of Compiegne sallied out in 
Luxemburg's rear and stormed one of the forts which 
he had built to blockade the place, being assisted by a 
detachment which the French generals had ordered to 
pass around his flank. By this manoeuvre the French 
were able to enter Compiegne, and, having done so, crossed 
the river by boat and stormed other forts erected near 
the place where Joan had been taken prisoner. So com- 
pletely were the operations of the besiegers broken up 
that the English captains woidd remain no longer, and 
forced Luxemburg to withdraw, "much displeased at 
heart, though he could not help it." This ending of the 



BEAUREVOIR. 245 

siege, five months after Joan's capture, fulfilled the prom- 
ise of her voices, which had foretold the delivery of Com- 
piegne before Martinmas, the eleventh of November.^ 

1 Sorel, Prise de J. devant Compiegne, 255 et seq., and authorities 
cited ; Monstrelet, Bk. II. ch. zcvL 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ROUEN. 

Now that Joan was bought and paid for, and safely in 

-, their hands, the English were free to act on the 

Nov.- ° 

Dec, theory that she was a witch, or to treat her as a 

1430 . 

prisoner of war. For a short time they seemed 
to hesitate, and kept her at Le Crotoy, where she was 
allowed to confess to the chancellor of Amiens, himself a 
prisoner of some distinction, and to attend the masses 
which he celebrated in the castle.^ The hesitation of the 
English angered the authorities of the University of 
Paris, fierce partisans as they were, and on November 21 
they wrote both to Cauchon and to Henry VI. 

" We greatly wonder, reverend father," they wrote to 
the bishop, "that the dispatch of this woman, vulgarly 
called the Maid, has been so long put off, to the injury of 
the faith and of the church's jurisdiction, and our wonder 
is the greater now that she is, as we hear, in the hands 
of the king. Perchance if your Grace had shown keener 
diligence in this matter, the cause of the said woman 
would already have been brought before the ecclesiasti- 
cal courts. With the utmost diligence, therefore, your 
Grace's zeal should be directed to prevent the authority 
of the church from suffering greater injury by longer 
delay in this matter." They further begged Cauchon to 
arrange for Joan's trial in Paris, " where there is a 
great number of wise and learned men, so that her 
cause can be quickly heard and properly decided to the 
enlightenment of Christian people and to the glory of 
God." 2 

1 P. iii. 121, Mac7. « P. i. 16. 



ROUEN. 247 

The letter to Henry VI. was not quite so sharp in its 
tone, but its substance was the same. The king was re- 
minded of his duty to put down heresy ; several earlier 
letters on the subject, written to him by the university, 
were recalled to his attention, and he was begged to hand 
Joan over to the bishop and to the inquisitor-general, 
that she might be tried by them and punished as she de- 
served. Paris, he was told, was the place best suited to 
her trial, both on account of the learned men who lived 
there, and also because her punishment should be inflicted 
in the place where her crimes had been committed.^ 

It has been suggested that these letters were procured 
by Cauchon and the English council, ^ in order to justify 
themselves for the course which they afterwards followed. 
No doubt the letters served as a justification of Joan's 
trial, but they were probably written in good faith, for 
Cauchon would hardly have dictated a rebuke as sharp as 
that which was sent him. The University of Paris was 
proud of its orthodoxy, and had gained in France no 
small part of the authority which in some other countries 
belonged to the Inquisition. ^ Bitterly prejudiced against 
Joan, it longed to have her in its hands, and, with the 
other authorities of Paris, it had spared no pains to stir 
up the people of the city against her. On September 3 
a Breton woman had been burned to death, after a ser- 
mon rehearsing her crimes had been preached to the 
crowd which had gathered for the show. The poor crea- 
ture believed that God had visited her, and she had dared 
to say that Joan was a good girl, doing good and obey- 
ing God's will.* The conduct of the university during 

1 P. i. 17. Henry VI. arrived at Rouen July 29, 1430. See 
Beaurepaire, Recherches, 14 ; Cochon, Chron. Normande, 312. 

2 For the English council at this time, see Beaurepaire, Recherches, 
17. Bedford was absent from Rouen throughout the trial. lb., 65 
et seq. 

5 See Lea, Hist. Inquisition, ii. 135. 

* P. iv. 467, Joum. Bourg. ; Quellien, Une compagne de J. Certain 



248 JOAN OF AEG. 

Joan's trial showed that it needed no urging to take sides 
against her. 

Thus pressed by the university and probably also by 
Cauchon, the English were perplexed. As has been said 
already, if they carried Joan to England and kept her 
there as a prisoner of war, they would greatly irritate 
the only real friends left to them in France, and they 
would leave themselves under the imputation of having 
opposed the will of God as declared by his messenger. 
Even if they should secretly put Joan to death in prison, 
they would not destroy the glory which she and her 
visions had brought to the French arms. That could 
be done only by proving her to be the messenger of 
Satan. ^ 

To try her for a witch, on the other hand, was no sim- 
ple matter. If the trial were held in England, the de- 
cision of the court would lose much of its proper effect ; 
there was reason in the remark of the university, that 
the fitting place for Joan's punishment and disgrace was 
that in which her crimes had been committed. To try 
her in Paris, however, was out of the question. She was 
safe in Le Crotoy, an impregnable fortress ; the road be- 
tween that place and Paris was long and beset by the 
French. 2 The English councilors could hardly believe 
that Charles VII. was willing to leave Joan to her fate 
without a struggle, and they dreaded her rescue by her 
friends, either her old companions in arms, or her sup- 
posed master, Satan. Moreover, Paris was largely in the 
control of the duke of Burgundy, as Henry's lieutenant, 

amiably patriotic Bretons have tried to make a heroine of the poor 
wretch, but the material is too scanty. 

1 See P. iv. 353, Basin. 

2 See Beaurepaire, Recherches, Gil. It is possible, of course, that 
Joan's trial was planned soon after her capture ; but the letters of 
the university and the general drift of the evidence seem to me 
to indicate that the English policy took definite form long after- 
waxds. 



EOUEN. 249 

and, after buying Joan for themselves with a great price, 
the English were not ready to let her fall again into 
Philip's hands. She could not be tried in Normandy 
before English judges. Only the clergy of the province 
had the necessary jurisdiction, and few Englishmen had 
been preferred to Norman benefices, though Normandy 
had been a conquered country for more than ten years.^ 

The trial of Joan, then, to be both safe and effective, 
must be held in Normandy before French judges. To 
give it proper importance, to make her condemnation de- 
cisive in the eyes of the world, the trial must be solemn 
and imposing, carried on with due appearance of fairness.^ 
Cauchon was a man well fitted to preside over it, but a 
number of other men like-minded with Cauchon were 
needed to sit with him. Such men were not very nu- 
merous. 

Mention has been made already of the little body of 
politicians to which he belonged, the Burgundian parti- 
sans who were more Burgundian than the duke himself, 
and who hated the Armagnacs so fiercely that their utter 
fidelity to the English followed as matter of course. 
Anions: the Norman ecclesiastics there were a few who 
belonged to this party, but most of the clergy of the 
province were of a temper quite different. To most Nor- 
mans, English rule was an accepted fact. They had no 
intention of revolting against their rulers ; revolt had been 
tried, and had ended in disaster. The English had made 
some show of consulting them in the government of the 
province, had called together its estates, had protected 
some of its liberties, and had installed comparatively few 
English officials. For all this, the Normans did not 
greatly love their new rulers. Norman soldiers could not 
be trusted in battle, and English captains were forbidden 
to enroll in their companies any Frenchmen except those 

^ See Beaurepaire, Recherches, 57. 
* See Varanius, ed. Prarond, 101. 



250 JOAN OF ARC. 

from Bordeaux and its neighborhood, a district as loyal 
as Kent or Norfolk. ^ The people of Normandy would 
make no attempt to rescue Joan, and the clergy would 
not interfere to prevent her trial and condemnation, but 
there was reason to fear that neither people nor clergy 
would be zealous in condemning her.^ 

In this state of affairs, the English might well hesitate, 
but they decided to take the risk, and to send Joan to 
Rouen for trial before Cauchon. Upon his zeal they 
could rely ; the inquisitor, who should sit with him, was 
not ill-disposed toward them, and the opinion of the Uni- 
versity of Paris could at any time be taken and used to 
overcome the scruples of doubting Norman assessors. 

After a short stay at Le Crotoy, Joan was therefore 
sent to Rouen, probably in the first days of December. 
Like other cities, Rouen had its citadel or castle,^ a for- 
tress built by Philip Augustus, close to the city's walls, 
but protected by its own walls, ditch, and towers, and able 
to stand a siege even after the capture of the city. Joan 
was imprisoned near the postern gate in one of these 
towers, a great mass of masonry one hundred feet high 
and something over forty feet in diameter, with walls 
twelve feet thick. The room was nearly dark, feebly 
lighted* by a slit just wide enough to shoot an arrow 
through, or receiving, perhaps, all its light and air 
through the doorway.^ Here she was closely watched by 

^ Beaurepaire, Recherches, 35. French inroads into Normandy 
made severe repression necessary, and thus rendered English rule 
unpopular. 

2 The Norman clergy inclined to follow the council of Basle rather 
than the pope, thus agreeing with the French rather than with the 
English. Beaurepaire, Recherches, 47. 

* Warwick was captain. Beaurepaire, Recherches, 24. 

* P. ii. 302, La Pierre. 

^ I confess that I cannot interpret more particularly the testimony 
concerning the place of confinement, and I find M. Bouquet's expla- 
nations more incomprehensible than that of the original witnesses. 



ROUEN. 251 

half a dozen common soldiers, who had both the leisure 
and the disposition to mock her, to taunt her with the cer- 
tainty of impending death, and to threaten her with every 
sort of violence, which they seem occasionally to have 
attempted.^ 

Joan had almost escaped between the planks of her 
prison at Beaulieu, and so the confinement just described 
was considered insufficient. The English caused to be 
made an iron cage in which she could be held sitting 
upright, chained by her neck, her hands, and her feet.^ 
It is not certain that this fearful instrument of torture 
was put into use. During most of her imprisonment only 
her feet were fettered, the chains that held them being 
attached to another chain which passed between the legs 
of her bedstead, and was locked to a heavy wooden beam.^ 
Her irons were taken off only when she was brought 
into court. Harsh treatment like this had an object be- 
yond safe-keeping or the gratification of spite; a trial 
for sorcery and witchcraft was not completely successful 
without the confession of the accused,* and that was 
most easily obtained either by judicial torture or by ill 
treatment in prison. A confession Cauchon and the 
English were determined to get. 

Left to her chains and her warders, seeing no human 
faces but those of her enemies, Joan called upon her 
voices, and daily and nightly the saints visited her. They 

Saintrailles, who was confined in another tower of the castle about a 
year later, was kept in one of the casemates by a barricade which 
closed its inner opening, the outer opening being too small to admit 
his escape. See Bouquet, /. au chateau de Rouen ■ ib., Notice histo- 
rique sur le donjon du chateau de Philippe-Auguste. 

1 P. iii. 161, CoUes ; 59, Courcelles ; 122, Macy ; 147, Manchon ; 
154, Massieu ; ii. 7, Ladvenu ; 18, Massieu ; 298, Manchon. 

2 P. ii. 306, 346 ; iii. 180, Cusquel ; iii. 155, Massieu. 

8 P. ii. 18, Massieu ; 306, Cusquel ; 318, Taquel ; iii. 48, Tiphaine ; 
200, Daron. 

* See p. 259, infra. 



252 JOAN OF ARC. 

promised her deliverance, not in any particular manner 
or at any fixed time, but deliverance somehow for herself 
and for France, and they assured her of God's care and 
love. Having this promise and assurance, she bore her 
captivity with brave and unbroken spirit. 

Various proceedings must be had before her trial could 
be begun.^ As soon as it was determined upon, Cauchon 
caused an inquiry to be made at Domremy and there- 
abouts concerning Joan's way of life as a child and as a 
girl. That this should be possible in a French village 
like Domremy is unaccountable, unless the political confu- 
sion of eastern France is borne in mind. Joan's triumphs 
had not reached the valley of the Meuse. In October, 
1429, soon after the retreat to the Loire, while Philip of 
Burgundy was wavering in his allegiance, Bedford had 
made him lieutenant, not only of Paris, but of pretty 
much all eastern France.^ In that part of the country 
the English and French, the partisans of Burgundy and 
the partisans of Charles VII., held at the end of 1430 
much the same position they had held at the beginning 
of 1429, when Joan set out for Chinon. During the 
summer of 1430, indeed, one of Charles's generals had 
carried on a successful war in Champagne,^ but on the 
borders of Lorraine the Anglo-Burgundians were masters 
of nearly everything except Vaucouleurs. 

Cauehon's instructions were addressed, as it seems, to 
John of Torcenay, bailiff of Chaumont, in which bail- 
iwick Domremy was situated. Torcenay had held his 
office for some years, and was a stanch hater of all 
Armagnacs. He sent to Domremy the provost of Montes- 

^ According to Basin, P. iv. 351, the discussion in the English 
council about Joan's trial took place after her arrival in Rouen. 
Basin was then a young student in Paris, and the account in the text 
is more probable. 

2 Beaucourt, ii. 35, n. 

8 Beaucourt, ii. 38. 



ROUEN. 253 

clar and one Bailly, a notary, who then and there sum- 
moned twelve or fifteen witnesses and took their deposi- 
tions. The provost and the notary stayed a short time 
at Domremy in the house of a peasant, and learned what 
they could. It is impossible to say if any of Joan's family 
were then living in the village. Those of the neighbors 
who would not testify willingly were generally let alone, 
for delay was dangerous with Baudricourt and the garri- 
son of Vaucouleuvs near at hand. The depositions were 
duly authenticated and were dispatched to the bailiff. 

The notary and the provost, as it appears, were honest 
men, possibly not over zealous in the cause of England 
and Burgundy. What they learned at Domremy was in 
no way discreditable to Joan, and had no tendency to 
prove her a witch. When this was pointed out to them, 
however, they stoutly affirmed that they had taken down 
the statements of the witnesses correctly, at which reply 
the bailiff became very angry and called them traitor 
Armagnacs. There was nothing to do, however, but to 
send the depositions to Cauchon, and let him treat them 
as he would. They reached Rouen about New Year's 
day.i 

The jurisdiction which Cauchon claimed over Joan 
rested upon the fact that she had been taken prisoner 
within the bounds of his diocese of Beauvais. This was 
deemed sufficient to give him jurisdiction over the accused, 
and over her crimes wherever committed ; but, under 
ordinary circumstances, his tribunal should have sat 
within the limits of his own diocese. To try Joan at 
Beauvais was impossible, however, as the bishop had 
been driven out of the place by the patriotic feeling which 
she had stirred up. To hold his court in the archdiocese 
of Rouen, he must get leave from the diocesan authorities. 

1 P. i. 27 ; ii. 378 et seq. ; 441, Lebuin ; 453, Bailly ; 462, Ja- 
quard ; iii. 192, Moreau. For Torcenay, see Luce, 111, 188, 219, 
220, 223. 



254 JOAN OF ARC. 

Jolin of La Rochetaillee, the last archbishop, had been 
translated to Besan9on about a year before, and it de- 
volved upon the chapter of the cathedral to administer 
the diocese during the vacancy. 

The chapter of Rouen was a body of considerable inde- 
pendence of judgment. None of the canons actively 
sympathized with the royalist cause, few of them were 
atrong partisans of Henry VI., most of them belonged to 
that almost neutral party which has been mentioned 
already. The chapter had no great love for Cauchon. 
It had quarreled with the last archbishop and had forced 
him to agree not to come to Eouen without its consent, 
which consent he had hardly once obtained ; in this quarrel 
Cauchon had meddled. He wished to become the next 
archbishop, and had gained the recommendation of the 
English; the canons had another candidate. Bedford had 
got permission from the pope to levy a tax of thirty thou- 
sand pounds on the clergy of Normandy and had charged 
Cauchon with its collection ; in this the bishop had been 
so zealous that the clergy had appealed from him to the 
pope.^ 

In spite of their want of friendliness, the canons could 
hardly resist Cauchon's demand, not unreasonable in it- 
self, and backed by English influence. Some of them, 
though Frenchmen, owed their seats to English nomina- 
tion. Only two months before, on his recovery from 
a severe illness, the regent Bedford himseK, a man of 
religion and of high character according to the standard 
of the times, had asked and obtained admission to a can- 
onry. Accompanied by his wife, he had been received 
with great pomp by the chapter, Cauchon acting as 
bishop, and both duke and duchess had borne themselves 
with great humility through the long ceremony .^ In 

^ See Beaurepaire, Recherches sur le proces de condamnation de J^ 
especially pages 50 et seq. 
* Beaurepaire, 61. 



EOUEN. 255 

honor of his admission, Bedford had made large gifts to 
the cathedral, for which he seems to have had a real affec- 
tion, and in which, five years later, he was buried at his 
own request. Bedford doubtless wished that Cauchon's 
request should be granted, and it was impossible for the 
chapter to disregard the wish of a man who was at once 
its master and friend. On December 28, accordingly, 
letters were issued to Cauchon. 

They set forth that Cauchon sought to proceed against 
a certain woman, who had not only cast aside all decency 
and behaved shamelessly and as one unsexed, but also had 
held and spread abroad many things contrary to the 
Catholic faith and in derogation of its articles. By God's 
pleasure this woman had been taken in Cauchon's diocese, 
and he had prevailed upon her captors to deliver her up. 
so that she was now come into his hands in the city of 
Kouen. Here he proposed to hold his court, to examine 
witnesses, to question the accused herself, and, if neces- 
sary, to put her in prison. In acting thus he did not in- 
tend to thrust his sickle into the harvest of the chapter, 
but begged it to grant him for his purpose sufficient terri- 
torial rights. These the chapter graciously accorded, 
commanding all persons to assist the bishop, and author- 
izing him to proceed, either in company with the inquis- 
itor or without him, as if he were acting within his own 
diocese. All which was done saving the dignity of the 
archdiocese of Rouen. ^ 

After Cauchon had acquired the right to exercise his 
jurisdiction in Rouen, the English government delivered 
to him its prisoner. On January 3, 1431, the proclama- 
tion issued, rehearsing Joan's attempt to seduce simple 
people into the belief that she was sent by God, and de- 
claring that the king, for the reverence and honor of 
God's name, and for the defense and exaltation of Holy 
Church, at the request of his dear and well-beloved daugh- 

1 P. i. 20. 



256 JOAN OF ARC. 

ter the University of Paris, was willing to hand over 
Joan to the bishop for trial. " It is our intention, how- 
ever," the proclamation continued, " to retake into our 
custody the aforesaid Joan, in case she should not be 
convicted of any of the aforementioned crimes." The 
English were not willing to trust their prisoner without 
reserve, even to the vigorous zeal of Cauchon.^ 

Before entering upon the history of the trial of Joan of 
Arc, it is well to consider just what was the temper and 
intention of the bishop at the time the trial began. Most 
certainly he did not look upon Joan with that freedom 
from prejudice which is the habit of every good judge at 
the present day. Before he ever saw her, he had a most 
decided opinion concerning her guilt, and he tried her 
with the distinct intention of condemning her, the possi- 
bility of an acquittal never having entered his mind. On 
the other hand, he had no intention of condemning the 
innocent, or of rendering a judgment in any way unjust. 
Joan's guilt was so certain that it would be a grievous 
failure of justice if that guilt was not made to appear 
plainly. For the purpose of mere justice, indeed, a trial 
was hardly needed, and its principal object was not to de- 
termine Joan's guilt, but to make that guilt manifest to 
all the world. At the outset of the trial Cauchon's tem- 
per was neither judicial nor hypocritical, but that of a 
sincerely bigoted partisan. How far it changed as the 
trial went on is another matter. 

1 P. i. 18. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIAL. 

To understand the trial of Joan of Arc, it is necessary 
to know something of the form of trial ordinarily January, 
used in the fifteenth century, and especially of the ^^^^* 
methods of the Holy Inquisition and other ecclesiastical 
tribunals. 

The old Teutonic theory of jurisprudence knew no 
broad difference between civil and criminal law, and re- 
garded all criminal proceedings as lawsuits brought by 
the aggrieved person against the offender. As between 
the two parties to the suit, the court, however constituted^ 
held itseK impartial, and left them to fight it out or to 
settle it according to some one of the traditional methods 
of trial. This primitive theory was quite inadequate to 
meet the conditions of advancing civilization. In England 
the community, which originally acted only as the judge 
between complainant and defendant, in later times became 
vested with two distinct and even contradictory functions. 
On the one hand the sovereign, theoretically at least, 
replaced the original private complainant in a criminal 
suit and prosecuted it as an interested party, avowedly 
hostile to the defendant; on the other hand, the 
sovereign's judges sat to hear the ease with primitive 
impartiality, deciding it as between party and party, 
substantially like a civil action. Neither the sovereign as 
complainant, nor the sovereign as judge, acting separately, 
undertook to determine if the accused was really guilty. 
The former strove to prove him guilty, the latter, with 
the help of a jury, decided if the proof offered at the 



258 JOAN OF ARC. 

trial was formally and substantially sufficient to sustain 
the complaint or indictment. If the proof failed, either in 
form or substance, then, though the accused were plainly 
the greatest scoundrel in the realm, yet the court held 
him harmless.^ 

This method, theoretically absurd, but in the conditions 
of mediaeval civilization practically pretty sensible, found 
less favor on the Continent. In France the idea of crim- 
inal prosecution as a contest between two parties tended 
to disappear,^ and the courts undertook in the first in- 
stance to seek out the criminal and afterwards to judge 
him. The defendant might, indeed, be denounced to the 
judge by some person whom he had wronged, but pri- 
vate complaint or denunciation was not necessary. The 
judge himself, of his own notion, made inquisition for 
the offender. Even if the complaint was originally made 
by a private person, yet the judge usually held a prelimi- 
nary inquest before proceeding to the trial of the case, 
acting after the manner of an English grand jury. This 
inquest was called an information, and it differed from 
the proceedings before the grand jury in this respect 
among others, that it was conducted by the same tribunal 
which subsequently tried the offender.^ 

In England, again, where a criminal proceeding was 
treated as a lawsuit between the sovereign and the accused, 
the latter, like a party to a civil suit, was not allowed to 
testify, and so could not be compelled to do so. In France 

^ This is not the place, of course, to discuss primitive jurispru- 
dence or procedure. So much only has been said as may serve to 
throw light on Joan's trial. See Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. 609 et seq. 
The "appeal," or private criminal suit, brought against the accused 
by the injured person or his representative, lingered in England until 
within living memory. Ashford v. Thornton, 1 Barnewali & Alder- 
son's Reports, 405. 

2 It existed originally, of course. See Esmein, Hist, de la pro 
cedure criminelle en France, 43, 51. 

3 Esmein, 67, 81, 89, 103, 106, 108, 113. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIAL. 259 

the accused was naturally the most important witness, in- 
asmuch as he knew most about the crime to be investi- 
gated ; and so he was examined, not only at the trial, but 
at the inquiry which preceded it. There was another im- 
portant difference between the English system and the 
French. In England, when the trial was had, the decision 
of the facts was left to the jury, a changing body of com- 
mon men, not experts in the law, but men who made up 
their minds about each case as it arose, without elaborating 
any theory of presumption or of proof. In France per- 
manent judges passed upon facts and law alike, and, being 
experts, soon framed a very elaborate and technical theory 
of proof which rapidly hardened into law. This theory of 
proof was doubtless intended to secure the accused from 
unjust condemnation ; in fact it required for his convic- 
tion proof of such extraordinary strength that it hardly 
permitted the conviction of any one except upon his own 
confession in court. 

In France, then, the courts were charged with the dis- 
covery and prosecution of criminals as well as with their 
trial, and by the rules they had established were almost 
forbidden to convict a criminal except upon his own con- 
fession. In this system, it became one of the principal 
duties of a judge to extort a confession from the accused, 
by gentle means if possible, otherwise by torture. Wher- 
ever the accused is permitted to arrest justice by his con- 
tumacy, torture becomes a necessity. This was true even 
in England ; the English law did not permit a man to be 
tried or condemned unless he pleaded to the indictment, 
guilty or not guilty, and, if the accused was contumacious 
and would not plead at all, even the English law provided 
that he should be tortured until he spoke or died.^ 

^ This was the so-called " peine forte et dure." Though a man 
died under the torture, he was not considered guilty, and so he saved 
his property from forfeiture. Nowadays, of course, silence is con- 
strued as a plea of not guilty. 



260 JOAN OF ARC. 

What iias been said hitherto concerning French pro- 
cedure applies to the civil tribunals as distinguished from 
the ecclesiastical, but the theory of ecclesiastical proced- 
ure was the same. Doubtless the Holy Office was more 
arbitrary in its rules than the courts of the king, and 
even than those of the bishop ; but in northern France it 
followed, at least in theory, much the same rules of evi- 
dence and the same mechanical doctrine of presumption. 
An ecclesiastical court, however, had an additional reason 
for seeking the confession of the accused. Only by his 
confession could be secured his repentance, and so his 
ultimate salvation. 

Joan's trial, therefore, may be divided into two parts. 
The first was the inquest or informatio prceparatoria^ a 
somewhat rambling investigation into the facts of the case, 
a gathering of evidence to be taken down at the time, and 
used subsequently to support an accusation or indictment 
which had not yet been prepared. This evidence thus 
taken served a double purpose ; it supplied the material 
out of which the indictment was framed, and then was 
used in proof of the same indictment. The second part 
of the ti'ial was the ^^rocessi^s ordinarius or trial proper, in 
which the evidence gathered at the preliminary inquiry, 
with some additional evidence taken at the trial itself, 
was examined to see if it afforded proof technically suffi- 
cient of Joan's guilt. 

On Tuesday, January 9, 1431, only six days after the 
Jamiary English had formally delivered to him their 
9, 1431. prisoner, Cauchon opened his court in the royal 
council chamber at Rouen for the trial of Joan of Arc. 
He did not sit alone ; Joan's guilt was to be established, not 
by the judgment of a single bishop, but by that of many 
reverend and learned men. At the first meeting of the 
court some eight were gathered, two abbots, a prior, the 
treasurer of the cathedral of Rouen and four canons, all 
of them the holders of degrees in theology, in civil or in 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIAL. 261 

canon law. One John of Estivet, a canon of Beauvais and 
a follower of his bishop, was appointed by the court to be 
the prosecuting attorney.^ John of La Fontaine became 
the bishop's commissary, a sort of vice-president of the 
tribunal. William Boisguillaume and William Manchon 
were made notaries, and John Massieu sergeant, the three 
last named being priests who lived in Rouen. Cauchon 
exhorted the notaries in particular to serve the king faith- 
fully, informing them that he intended to make Joan's a 
notable trial. To the tribunal thus constituted were read 
the letters written by the University of Paris and by 
Cauchon himself concerning the delivery of Joan and the 
proceedings against her, and those from the chapter of 
Kouen and the English authorities giving the bishop juris- 
diction of the matter. The court then adjourned.^ 

Four days later, on January 13, it met again in Cau- 
chon's house.^ The assessors in attendance at 
one meeting and another differed considerably ; Feb., 
sometimes more than forty were present, some- ' ' 
times only five or six. Some assessors sat but once or 
twice, others attended pretty regularly, these last being 
generally the men upon whom Cauchon could best rely. 
All were ecclesiastics, most of them Normans, a few from 
the rest of France, only one or two Englishmen. Some 
did their work reluctantly, most of them as a matter of 
routine, a few with hearty and bitter zeal. 

Before proceeding even to a preliminary Inquest, it 
was advisable to produce some evidence indicating that 
Joan was a person reasonably suspected of crime, and to 
show this Cauchon caused to be read the depositions which 
had been taken at Domremy and thereabouts. In them 
was found very little discreditable to her; indeed the 
bishop is said to have complained bitterly of their useless- 
ness, and to have reviled the man who brought them, 

^ See Esmein, 100 et seq. 

2 P. i. 5 et seq. » P. i. 27. 



262 JOAN OP ARC. 

refusing to pay him anything for his trouble. Thereat 
the messenger became angry in his turn, and went about 
saying that the depositions contained nothing concerning 
Joan that he would not be willing to find in his own 
sister.^ Defective evidence such as this was eked out 
with minutes and memoranda much more satisfactory, 
drawn from the rumors and reports concerning Joan, from 
the legends current among English and Burgundian sol- 
diers, and from the strange stories which for more than 
a year and a half had been told all over Europe. This 
mass of hearsay the court ordered to be condensed or 
digested into articles from which it might determine if 
there was sufficient reason for subjecting Joan to the in- 
quest or preliminary inquiry above mentioned. Cauchon 
chose a committee for the purpose, and in about ten days 
it was ready to report.^ 

No copy has been preserved of these articles. The 
earliest existing formal statement of the case against Joan 
is one which was framed after she had been examined 
many days, and this was based largely upon the answers 
she had given. In order to understand the course of her 
long examination, however, we must know as definitely 
as possible what were the matters concerning which at 
the outset of the trial the judges expected to find her 
guilty. These were the matters to which they would 
address their questions, in the hope of getting from her 
either a direct confession or such admissions as would 
amount to one. 

First and principally it was charged that Joan had had 
dealings with familiar spirits. That she had dealt with 
some sort of spirits was plain to every one, and there was 
doubt only concerning their character.^ Joan asserted 

1 P. ii. 381 ; iii. 191, Moreau. 

2 p. i. 28. 

^ That she was a mere mountebank, or completely self-deceived, 
were improbable suppositions in the fifteenth century. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIAIi. 2G3 

that they were saints ; her enemies quite naturally be- 
lieved them to be devils, and for their belief adduced 
several reasons. Magic was not unknown in Domremy ; 
the depositions, even if they were otherwise worthless, 
contained stories of the fairy tree and of the magic 
fountain, — stories which might easily be exaggerated and 
applied to Joan. Again, Joan had apparently ascribed 
supernatural virtue to a particular sword and banner, 
and there were reports that she had used secret charms, 
and had promised to her soldiers safety in the face of the 
enemy. Other acts were even more plainly culpable. 
Not only had she entered upon an unwomanly career, and 
practiced all sorts of unwomanly exercises, but she had 
persistently worn men's clothes, a thing absolutely forbid- 
den by Holy Scripture and the councils of the church. 
These were grave offenses in themselves, and they made 
Joan's boast of saintly guidance seem almost absurd. 
Moreover, she had attacked Paris on the feast of the 
Annunciation ; she had attempted her own life at Beau- 
revoir, as a witch would do, instead of bearing her im- 
prisonment patiently, like a good Christian ; she had 
allowed common people to worship her ; she had stolen 
a bishop's horse ; she had pretended to work miracles. 
To men who do not believe in witchcraft, all this is a 
farrago of irrelevant nonsense, but, if an undoubting 
belief in witchcraft is assumed, then this easily credited 
mixture of truth and falsehood is quite suspicious enough 
to provoke judicial inquiry. During the trial one or two 
other causes of suspicion were found, and added to the 
charges. 

About a month was spent in preparation. The first 
articles were revised and questions were prepared by 
the commissary, acting under the general direction of 
Cauchon, who was busy otherwise. On February 19 the 
articles were approved, and a formal summons was issued 
to Joan, but there was a hitch in the proceedings, appar- 



264 JOAN OF ARC. 

ently unexpected. From the beginning it had been in. 
tended that a representative of the Inquisition should sit 
in Cauchon's tribunal. The inquisitor-general of France, 
however, the Dominican John Graverent, was busy at the 
trial of a burgher of St. Lo, and could not attend Joan's 
trial himself.^ His vicar for the diocese of Rouen, the 
prior John Lemaitre, was duly summoned by Cauchon, 
but hesitated at first, and then refused to sit with the 
bishop, alleging a want of jurisdiction. He was commis- 
sioned to act, as he said, only within the diocese of Rouen ; 
geographically, Joan's trial was held in that diocese, but 
juridically it was held in the diocese of Beauvais, to which 
his authority did not extend. Probably he was unwilling 
to take part in the trial.^ 

Cauchon did not assent to the vicar's opinion concern- 
ing the limits of his authority, but tried first to overrule 
him, and then by promising to write to the inquisitor- 
general for a broader commission sought to persuade him 
to become a member of the court. Lemaitre replied that 
for the clearing of his own conscience, and to insure the 
validity of the proceedings, he preferred not to meddle in 
any matter without due authority. So far as in him lay, 
he authorized Cauchon to proceed. Having excused him- 
self in this cautious manner he withdrew. For the first 
time the bishop met with a passive opposition, afterwards 
shown by many others who were concerned in the trial. 

With or without the inquisitor, Cauchon determined 
Feb 21 ^ S^ forward, and, in the royal chapel of the 
1431. castle, on Wednesday, February 21, 1431, he held 
the first public session of the court. Forty-three assessors 
attended. The prosecuting attorney, Estivet, stood up 
and read the warrant summoning Joan to appear, and 
the certificate ^ of the sergeant who had served the process 

^ Beanrepaire, Recherches, 80. 

2 P. i. 33. 

' In English legal terminology, the return. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIAL. 265 

upon her. This certificate stated that Joan would will- 
ingly appear before the bishop, but had begged that some 
of her judges might be taken from the French party, and 
also that she might be allowed to hear mass before she 
was brought into court. Thereupon Cauchon explained 
to his assessors that " considering the crimes of which the 
said woman was accused, and the impropriety of the dress 
which she persisted in wearing," he had forbidden her to 
hear mass. He had acted thus, as he said, by the counsel 
of notable doctors ; but upon this question he did not ask 
the advice or consent of his assessors, perhaps because 
he feared to risk so important a matter to the vote of so 
large and so mixed a body.^ This denial of spiritual 
comfort, which had continued nearly three months, as well 
as Joan's bodily and mental distress, was relied upon to 
break her stubborn will. 

After this introduction, Joan was brought into court, 
her irons having been removed for the occasion. For the 
first time in many weeks, probably, she saw the full light 
of day .2 Pale and shabby from her nine months' con- 
finement,^ the girl of nineteen faced the abbots, priors, 
canons, doctors, and bachelors of law and theology, know- 
ing that all were her natural enemies. By nature alto- 
gether truthful, wise enough or simple enough to tell the 
whole truth in answering all ordinary questions, she yet 
understood that she did not appear before these men in 
order to give a complete history of herself, but to stand 
for her life and the holiness of her mission. The ques- 

1 P. i. 40 et seq. 

* See P. ii. 16, where Massieu tells how Estivet threatened him 
with imprisonment in a tower where he could see neither the sun 
nor moon for a month. Massieu's offense had been friendliness to 
Joan. 

^ Probably the dress she wore when taken at Compifegne, without 
the armor and mantle. It is unlikely that either Luxemburg or the 
English so far humored her sinful practices as to supply her with 
men's clothes. 



266 JOAN OF ARC. 

tions put to her she considered shrewdly, and by adroit- 
ness, by good humor, by wit, or by sayings in which all 
these were combined in a perfect expression of faith in 
the God she served, she avoided many of the traps which 
her examiners laid for her. Considered merely as an 
intellectual exercise, her defense is wonderful, made, as it 
was, without help of an advocate. That it was made with- 
out help, Joan would have utterly denied. Many times a 
day she sought and received the counsel of her voices: 
at noontime while the court took a recess, at evening or 
waking in the morning, now and then even in the court- 
room. Sometimes she had only the sense of their pres- 
ence, sometimes they advised her what to say, often they 
told her to " answer boldly, and that God woidd help her." 

After a seat had been given her, Cauchon rehearsed 
the story of her capture and warned her to speak the 
truth without wile or subterfuge. Having thus admon- 
ished her charitably, as he phrased it, he next directed 
that she be sworn on the Evangelists to answer truly the 
questions put to her. She hesitated, knowing that there 
were questions which she was not ready to answer, and 
fearing that if once she were sworn, she must tell every- 
thing. " I do not know what you wish to ask me about," 
she said. " You may ask me things that I will not tell 
you." Cauchon asked her if she would answer in all 
matters of religion. ^ Regarding her father and mother, 
and her deeds since she came into France, Joan answered 
that she would swear to testify, but her revelations from 
God she had told only to Charles her king. These things 
she would not reveal though they should cut off her head, 
for her voices had forbidden her to speak ; within a week, 
however, she might receive permission.^ 

After some further parley and much confusion in the 
court, Cauchon yielded for the time, and Joan knelt 
down, laid both her hands upon a missal, and took the 

1 "Fidei materiam concernentibua." '^ P. i. 45. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIAL. 267 

oath in the form she had chosen. Then she answered 
readily a number of questions about her birthplace, her 
age, her parents and godparents. Her religious teach- 
ing, she told her judges, had been given her by her 
mother, who had taught her the Lord's Prayer, Ave 
Maria, and the Creed. Following the practice of the 
Inquisition,^ Cauchon bade her say the Lord's Prayer. 
Joan answered that she would gladly do so if the bishop 
would hear her in confession. Cauchon insisted that the 
prayer should be said at once, and Joan persistently re- 
fused. Possibly she objected to rattling off the sacred 
words merely to gratify what she considered her judge's 
whim, but she had a deeper reason for her refusal. By 
offering to say the Lord's Prayer in confession, she hoped 
to obtain a confessor, one of the spiritual privileges of 
which she had been deprived. She had triumphed, at 
least for the moment, in the matter of the oath, and as 
her voices had told her to answer boldly, she was ready 
to do so. The hearing had lasted for some time, and 
Cauchon adjourned it to the next day. 

Before dismissing his prisoner, however, he formally 
warned her, under penalty of being taken for a convicted 
heretic, not to withdraw from the prison assigned to her 
without his leave. Joan answered that she would not be 
bound by his command, and she added that, if she should 
escape, no one could blame her for breaking her parole, 
inasmuch as she had never given it. She complained of 
being kept in chains. The bishop said that this was 
necessary for her safe-keeping, and that she had already 
tried to escape. "It is true that I wished to get away, 
and still wish it," she answered, " as any prisoner may 
rightfully do." 2 

Ordinarily, a person tried before an ecclesiastical court 
was kept in an ecclesiastical prison, that is to say, in one 
controlled by the court before which the case was tried. 
1 See Taxil, Le Martyre de J., 94. 2 p. i. 47. 



268 JOAN OF ARC. 

The bishop of Beauvais had no prison in Rouen, and this 
may have been his excuse for keeping Joan in a secular 
prison; the real reason for her exceptional treatment, 
however, was quite different. In risking her trial before 
an ecclesiastical court, the English had done all they 
dared, and they had expressly reserved the right to deal 
with her as they chose, in case she should be acquitted. 
To trust her to a French ecclesiastical jailer was out of 
the question, and throughout the trial she was kept in the 
custody of English laymen. In an ecclesiastical prison, 
solitary confinement in chains would probably have been 
directed by Cauchon, but from a certain kind of outrage 
Joan woxdd have been secure. To give his action the 
appearance of regularity, Cauchon went through the form 
of swearing the English jailers to keep her well and 
faithfully, without letting her speak to any one. She 
was then led back to her chamber. 

There had been so much confusion in the chapel, and 
Joan had been interrupted so often and by so many peo- 
ple, that the notary Manchon refused to act further un- 
less the proceedings were conducted in more orderly fash- 
ion. He was an honest and painstaking clerk, scrupulous 
in reporting Joan's answers correctly, and he disapproved 
of the unfair record made by certain clerks in the employ 
of the English council, who had written down what they 
pleased. Cauchon had not yet begun to doubt that Joan 
could be condemned on a fair hearing, and the place of 
her trial was accordingly changed to a retiring-room near 
the great hall of the castle. Two English guards kept 
the door.^ 

At about eight o'clock in the morning of February 22 

Feb. 22, Joan was brought to this place, fasting, for it was 

Lent. There was another wrangle over the form 

of the oath, with the same result as before. Then John 

1 P. iii. 135, Manchon. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIAL. 269 

Beaupere,^ a learned doctor of theology, sent from the 
University of Paris, took up Joan's examination, and 
began by exhorting her to tell the truth, in whatever 
form she had taken the oath. " You may well ask me 
one thing about which I will tell you the truth, and an- 
other thing about which I wiU not tell you at all," Joan 
answered. " If you were well informed about me, you 
ought to wish me out of your hands. I have done no- 
thing except by revelation." ^ 

Beaup^re asked about her life as a child, and she an- 
swered freely. In sewing and in spinning she was not 
afraid to match herself against any woman in Rouen. 
He asked her how often she had confessed and com- 
municated; she answered as particularly as she could, 
and when he pressed her further, told him to pass to the 
next question. Then he came to her visions, and she told 
him the time and place of their first appearance. 

Desiring to show that the spirits which had spoken to 
Joan were evil, Beaupere asked what they had taught her 
for her soul's sake. She answered that they had told her 
to conduct herself well and to go often to church. Beau- 
pere wished to know the manner and form of their ap- 
pearance, but for the time Joan refused to teU him. She 
told him at some length of her visits to Baudricourt and 
to the duke of Lorraine, and of her journey to Chinon. 
She was shown the letters she had written to the Eng- 
lish captains before Orleans, and she acknowledged them, 
though she said that her language had been slightly 
changed. In fact, this had probably been done by the 
French scribes who wrote down her words.^ 

1 Beaurepaire, Notes sur lesjuges et les assesseurs du prods de con- 
damnation de J., 27. 

2 P. i. 51. 

® P. i. 52 et seq. The alterations which she specified in the letters 
are found in copies of them which never were in English or Burgun- 
dian hands. The most important change is the substitution of " Yield 



270 JOAN OF ARC. 

Slie told Beaup^re that at Chinon she had known the 
king by the help of her voices. At once he pressed her 
for details, asking whether there had been a miraculous 
light in the place or an angel over the king's head, and 
what sort of revelations Charles had had concerning' her. 
Joan suggested that he should send to the king, from 
whom, doubtless, he could get an answer. This, naturally, 
did not satisfy Beaupere, and he urged her further. 
Provoked by his persistence, Joan told him that the men 
of her party knew well that the voice was sent from God, 
and that they had seen and heard the voice : ^ the king 
and some others had seen the voice ^ when it came, among 
them Charles of Bourbon and two or three more. Led 
on by the stupid unbelief of her questioners, Joan was 
beginning to play boldly upon words, and, in talking of 
her coming to Charles, to speak of herself as the angel 
and the voice. Beaupere took up another accusation, 
that of having attacked Paris on a feast day, but he had 
hardly opened the matter when the court adjourned. 

After a day's notice, on Saturday, February 24, the 
Feb. 24 court assembled at the usual hour, with a larger 
1431. body of assessors than before. Again Cauchon 

tried to make Joan take the oath without reservation, 
and again she refused. " Look well to what you are say- 
ing, namely, that you are my judge," she warned him, 
" for in this you take a great burden on yourself, and you 

yourself to the Maid," as it stands in all the texts, for " Yield yourself 
to the king," as Joan said she dictated it. See P. i. 55 ; iv. 215, 306 ; 
V. 95. 

1 " Viderunt et cognoverunt ipsam vocem." P. i. 57. 

2 '* Audiverunt et viderunt voces venientes ad ipsam Johannam." 
P. i. 57. This implies that Bourbon and others saw St. Catherine 
and St. Margaret ; but it is probable that the clerks, who did not un- 
derstand Joan's equivocation, failed to catch her exact words. That 
the courtiers did not believe that they saw anything miraculous or 
extraordinary is made pretty plain by the fact that nothing of the 
sort was alleged or testified to at Joan's second trial. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIAL. 271 

burden me too heavily." She told the judges that she 
was sent by God and had no business in Rouen, and 
she begged them to send her back to God, from whom 
she had come. At last she said that she was ready to 
tell the truth in whatever concerned the case, and in this 
manner she was sworn.^ 

Beaupere began the examination by asking Joan when 
she had last eaten, hoping, apparently, to show that she 
had not kept Lent ; but she told him that she had eaten 
nothing since the afternoon of the day before. Then he 
asked when she had last heard her voices. " Both yester- 
day and to-day," she answered. They had come to her 
many times a day, and on Friday morning had roused 
her from sleep. Trying to support his theory of an evil 
spirit, Beaupere asked if she had given thanks to the voice, 
and had gone down on her knees to it ; he forgot that she 
was so chained that she could not kneel. Without no- 
ticing his mistake, Joan said simply that she had given 
thanks, sitting up in bed with joined hands ; she had 
already asked for help, and she had been told to answer 
boldly. Beaupere tried to discover the precise language 
of the voices, but she would not, and, indeed, probably 
could not tell him. Suddenly she turned upon Cauchon : 
" You say that you are my judge. Have a care what you 
do, for truly I am sent from God, and you put yourself 
in great peril." ^ 

She had said that she feared she might displease her 
voices if she should answer all his questions, and Beau- 
pere ingeniously inquired if God would be displeased with 
her for telling the truth. " My voices have told me to 
say some things to the king and not to you. This very 
night they have told me many things for his advantage, 
which I wish he knew even now, though I were to drink 
no wine for it until Easter." Beaupere suggested that 
she should command the voice to carry the message to 
1 P. i. 60, 61. 2 P. i. 62. 



272 JOAN OF ARC. 

the king. Joan answered that the voice would not obey 
her unless this were God's will. " If it pleased God, 
He himself could cause the revelation to be made to the 
king, whereat I should be much pleased." When asked 
why the voice did not speak to the king as it used to do 
when Joan was with him/ she said that this might not 
be God's will ; without His grace, she added, she should 
not know what to do. After another vain attempt to 
discover how the voices appeared to her, the wily doctor 
asked if she knew that she was in the grace of God. 
This may well have been a question ordinarily put to an 
obstinate heretic, for, if the accused answered yes, he 
manifested an unholy presumption, while, if he answered 
no, his guilt stood confessed. One of the assessors in- 
terrupted, saying it was not a fair question to put to 
a girl, but Cauchon told him he had better hold his 
tongue.^ " May God bring me into His grace if I am 
not in it ; if I am in it, may He keep me there," ® Joan 
answered. " If I knew that I was not in God's grace, 
I should be the sorriest being in the world.* If I were 
living in sin, I think the voice would not come to me, 
and I wish that every one imderstood it as well as 
I do." 5 

Beaupere next inquired about her life at Domremy and 
the state of political parties in the neighborhood, and pres- 
ently asked if her voices had told her to hate the Burgun- 

* The question indicates that Joan's equivocation was misleading 
her judges. 

2 P. ii. 367, Fabre. 

8 The Latin translation of the original French minute reads : " Si 
ego non sim, Deus ponat me, et si ego sim, Deus me teneat in ilia." 
I suggest that the original probably read : " Si je ne suis pas, Dieu 
m'y mette, et si je suis, Dieu m'y tienne." " Mettre " is translated 
"ponere" (see pp. 98, 107, 126, 167, 168, 183); "tenb" is trans- 
lated "tenere" (see pp. 104, 117, 141, 169, 177). 

* "Ego essem magis dolens de toto mundo." 
6 P. i. 65. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIAL. 273 

dians. Joan perceived the trap he thus laid for her, but 
admitted that she had not loved the Burgundians after 
learning that her voices were on Charles's side. Had she 
a firm intention of attacking the Burgundians, the exam- 
iner inquired. " I had a firm desire that my king should 
have his kingdom," Joan replied. The doctor then passed 
to the fairy tree and to the fountain, and Joan answered 
all his questions readily. There was a fountain near the 
village, the waters of which sick people used to drink, but 
she did not know if they were cured. There was a tree, 
about which strange stories were told ; whether they were 
true or not she could not pretend to say. She had hung 
garlands on its branches, like other girls ; sometimes, per- 
haps, she had danced about it with the boys of the village, 
but usually she preferred singing to dancing. There was 
also a grove less than half a league from her father's 
house. The neighbors had said that she took up her mis- 
sion in this grove, but they had been mistaken. As to 
the fairy stories told about the grove, she did not believe 
them. 

Having failed to prove that Joan had practiced magic 
in her youth, the examiner came to the wearing of men's 
clothes, an offense which she certainly had committed. 
" Are you willing to wear a woman's dress ? " he asked. 
" Give me one," Joan answered, " I will take it and go 
away ; unless I may go away I will not take it. I am 
content with this dress, since it pleases God that I should 
use it." 

The strain to which Joan was subjected by these exam- 
inations we do not fully comprehend, unless we 
bear constantly in mind the life which the young March, 
girl was leading outside the court-room. She 
kept faithfully the fasts of the church, and, throughout 
Lent, from the afternoon of one day until the afternoon 
of the next she ate nothing. During these examinations, 
therefore, she was faint with hunger ; indeed, her ques. 



274 JOAN OP ARC. 

tioners tliemselves were often worn out. If one became 
tired, however, another was ready to take his place, and 
several substitutes were provided for Beaupere.^ Many 
times, in spite of the notary's protest, these deputies did 
not wait for Beaupere's withdrawal, but hurled at Joan 
half a dozen questions at once, until she was obliged to 
say with a smile, " My good lords, one of you at a time." ^ 
After she had undergone this exercise for three or four 
hours, she was taken back to her prison, her chains, and 
her brutal keepers. In walking between her cell and the 
court-room, she passed in front of the chapel of the castle, 
and the sergeant used to let her stop a moment in sight . 
of the altar, and say a prayer. When the prosecuting at- 
torney learned this, he was furious, and threatened the 
officer : " How dai*e you let that cursed wench go near a 
church ? If you do it again, I will put you in a tower 
where for a month you shall see neither sun nor moon." 
Despite his orders, Joan could still glance in passing at the 
place where the host was kept, and Estivet would therefore 
block up the door v^ith his body so that she could see 
nothing. No one came to her chamber, except those who 
had permission from Cauchon or the English. Now and 
then some burgher got a peep at her to gratify his curios- 
ity,^ or some noble was admitted to stare at her or to tease 
her. One day John of Luxemburg, who happened to be 
in Rouen, went to visit her, along with his brother the 
bishop, the English earls of Warwick and Stafford, and 
the squire Haimond of Macy. 

" Joan, I am come to ransom you, if you will promise 
not to fight against us any more," said the count in rather 
cruel jest. 

" In God's name, you are only laughing at me," Joan 
answered, " for I know well that you have neither the will 
nor the power." Luxemburg insisted, and at last Joan 

^ P. ii. 16, Massieu ; iii. 178, Lemaire ; 180, Cusquel. 
2 P. iii. 155, Massieu. 3 See P. Lii. 200, Daron. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TEIAL. 275 

said, " I know well that these English will kill me, think- 
ing to get the kingdom of France after my death, but, 
though they were a hundred thousand goddams more than 
they now are, they shall not have the kingdom." Staf- 
ford was so angry at Joan's words that he drew his 
dagger to stab her, but Warwick checked him.^ 

Though she was harassed in this fashion, Joan's an- 
swers still gave Cauchon little satisfaction. " Let no 
one approach the heretic," so read a handbook of the In- 
quisition, "unless it be from time to time two faithful 
and skillful persons, who shall act as if they had pity on 
him, and shall warn him to save himself by confessing 
his errors, promising him, if he does so, that he shall not 
be burned ; for fear of death and hope of life sometimes 
soften a heart which cannot otherwise be touched." ^ 
A faithful and skillful person of the sort required was 
found in Nicholas Loiseleur, a canon of Chartres and of 
Rouen, and an intimate friend of Cauchon.^ Dressed as 
a layman, and acting under the directions of Cauchon 
and Warwick, he went into Joan's cell and represented 
himself to be a man from Lorraine, friendly to the girl 
and to the cause of France. On some excuse the warders 
withdrew, and left them together. There was no real 
privacy. Seated in a closet near by, which was built for 
the purpose, the notary Manchon was ordered to take 
down Joan's words, for use against her in the trial. 
Though commanded by the bishop and the earl, the 
notary refused to obey, saying that he would record only 
the testimony given in court. For this reason or for some 
other, the part of the plan which depended upon him was 
given up, but Loiseleur continued to visit Joan, and to 
express his sympathy for her troubles. For months she 
had not heard a kind word, and her shrewdness was de« 

1 P. Hi. 121, Macy. 

^ See Qiiieherat, Ap. nnuv., 131. 

' Beaurepaire, Notes sur lesjuges, 75 ; P. ii, 10. 



276 JOAN OF ARC. 

ceived. To Loiseleur she said mucli that she never would 
have told her judges. When the examiners wished to 
question Joan on any matter, Loiseleur would talk it over 
with her in the afternoon or evening, and upon what she 
said to him Beaupere would frame the questions to be 



1 P. ii. 10, 342 ; iii. 140, Manchon ; 161, Boisguillaunie ; 60, Cour- 
celles. In his Recherches, p. 107 et seq., M. Beaurepaire points out 
discrepancies in the accounts of Manchon and Boisguillaume, and 
doubts the whole story. These discrepancies seem to me rather un- 
important, and fully explicable by the lapse of time and the great 
age of BoisguUlaumie. The main fact is established by the testimony 
of Courcelles, a well informed and unimpeachable witness. 



CHAPTER XXI. 
Joan's examination. 

After two days' interval, on February 27 Joan was 
brought into court for the fourth time. There peh. 27, 
was the usual fruitless wrangle over the form of ^*^^* 
her oath, and then Beaupere asked about her health during 
the last three days, perhaps because he hoped that her 
obstinacy was weakening under the constant strain, per- 
haps because he was afraid that she would break down 
entirely, and die unconvicted on his hands, an end of the 
proceedings most undesirable. With natural impatience 
Joan answered, " You can see for yourself how I am ; I 
am as well as I can be." ^ 

The examiner then spent some time in a vain attempt 
to discover precisely how Joan's voices appeared to her. 
At length, when he asked whether the voice was that of 
an angel, of a saint, or of God himself, Joan yielded 
so far as to tell him that the voices were those of St. 
Catherine and St. Margaret. " And their faces were 
crowned with beautiful crowns, very rich and precious," 
she added. " This much I have God's leave to tell you. 
If you doubt what I say, send to Poitiers, where I have 
been examined already." 

At once Beaupere began a series of questions which 
seemed to Joan utterly trivial : did the saints speak one 
after another, or both at once ; how did Joan know them 
apart ; did they wear the same sort of clothes ; were they 
of the same age ? Sometimes Joan referred him to her 

P. i. 70. "Ego me babul quantum melius potui" (Je vie suis 
portee le mieux que fat pu ?). 



278 JOAN OP ARC. 

examination at Poitiers, sometimes she said that she had 
not leave to answer him. Probably she knew little of the 
petty matters which he asked her about ; once, when he 
spoke of St. Michael's voice, she replied, " I said nothing 
to you about his voice. I spoke of the great comfort 
he had given me." ^ 

Beaupere asked if there had been an angel above 
Charles's head when she first saw the king at Chinon. 
Joan lost her patience : " By the blessed Mary, I don't 
know if he was there," she said. "I did not see him." 
"Was there a light?" asked the doctor. "There were 
more than three hundred soldiers, and about fifty torches," 
Joan answered, " and that without counting the spiritual 
light. Karely do I have revelations without light," she 
added.2 

By the examiner's request she told the story of the 
sword found at St. Catherine of Fierbois. She had not 
caused it to be blessed, she said, nor had she laid it 
upon the altar to make it lucky. Had she prayed that it 
might be lucky, asked the persistent Beaupere. " Most 
certainly I wished my arms to be lucky," she answered. 
After giving a full description of her banner, she was 
questioned about the relief of Orleans, and especially 
if she had promised her soldiers that she herself would 
receive all the arrows, bolts, cannon balls, and so forth, 
which might be aimed at them. " Certainly not," she 
answered. " In fact, more than a hundred of them were 
hurt ; but I did tell them not to doubt, and that they 
should raise the siege. In attacking the fort near the 
bridge I myself was wounded ; but I had great comfort 
from St. Catherine, and was cured within a fortnight, 
and I did not have to give up riding and attending to 
business." ^ 

^ P. i. 71 et seq. It is probable that Joan limited the name 
" voices " (voix, voces) to St. Catherine and St. Margaret. 
2 P. i. 75. 3 p. I 79. 



Joan's examination. 279 

On March 1 and 3 the examination was continued in 
much the same fashion. ^ 'Again and again the March 
examiner asked his questions about the voices : ■^"^' ^*^^* " 
did they wear their hair long, did they have arms and legs, 
did they wear earrings, and did St. Michael wear a crown 
and carry a pair of scales ? "I have told you what I 
know," Joan said, " and I will answer you no further. I 
have seen St. Michael and the other saints quite well 
enough to know that they are really saints in paradise." ^ 
The examiner inquired if St. Margaret spoke English. 
" Why should she," asked Joan, in return, " since she is 
not of the English party?" - "Was St. Michael naked?" 
" Do you think that God has not wherewith to clothe 
him?" Joan answered. "Did he have hair?" continued 
the undaunted doctor. " Why should it have been cut 
off?" Joan replied, not thinking the question deserved a 
serious answer ; but, when Beaupere insisted on finding 
out the condition of the archangel's head, Joan told him 
that she knew nothing about it.^ 

What promises had the voices made to her, inquired 
Beaupere ; knowing that Satan is in the habit of making 
large promises to his votaries. " They promised that my 
king should receive his kingdom, whether his enemies 
would or no, and that they would guide me to paradise, as 
I begged them to do." The answer was disappointing, 
and Beaupere asked if no other promise had been given ; 
Joan admitted that there had been another, which she 
would tell within three months. Did they promise you 
that within three months you should be released ? " I do 
not know when I shall be released," said the girl ; " but 
they who wish to put me out of the world may well leave 
it before me." The examiner pressed to know if a defi- 

^ P. i. 80 et seq. 
2 P. i. 93. 

^ P. i. 86, 89. The questions are somewhat grouped, in order that 
the reader's confusion may not be as great as was that of the judges. 



280 JOAN OF ARC. 

nite promise of release had been given. " That does not 
concern your case," Joan answered. " Do you wish me to 
give evidence against myself ? " At length she admitted 
that the voices had promised her freedom, though she 
knew neither the day nor the hour of it ; " and they have 
bidden me to be bold and put on a cheerful face," she 
added. " I should have died if it had not been for the 
revelation which comforts me daily." ^ 

They tried to show that Joan used magic charms, and 
especially the herb mandragora. She answered simply 
that she had heard it existed in the neighborhood of Dom- 
remy, and was a thing dangerous to keep, though some- 
times used to get money. She herself had no belief in it 
and never had used it, nor had her voices said anything 
to her about it.^ Beaupere asked if prayers and masses 
had not been said in her honor. Joan replied that she 
knew nothing about this, and that no service had been 
said at her bidding, but if people had jjrayed for her, it 
seemed to her that they had not done ill. " Do the people 
of your party believe firmly that you are sent by God?" 
she was asked. " I do not know if they believe it. I leave 
that to their own minds ; but, even if they do not believe 
it, yet I am sent by God." " In believing that you are 
sent by God, do you think they hold a true belief? " asked 
the pertinacious doctor. " If they believe that I am sent 
by God, they are not deceived," she answered.^ 

Pursuing his theory of magic, Beaupere reached the 
case of the child brought back to life at Lagny; and 
Joan's answer is given as an example of the clearness and 
freedom with which she answered all ordinary questions. 
*'The child was three days old and was brought to our 
Lady at Lagny. I was told that the maids of the town 
were before our Lady, and I wished to go there and pray 
God and our Lady to bring the child back to life, so I 
went and prayed with the others. At last, life appeared 
1 P. i. 87, 88, 94. « P. i. 88. ^ T. l 101. 



Joan's examination. 281 

in him and lie yawned three times ; then he was baptized, 
and soon afterwards he died and was buried in conse- 
crated ground. For three days, they said, he had shown 
no signs of life, and he was as black as my coat, but when 
he yawned, his color began to come back. I was with the 
maids on my knees before our Lady in prayer." " Was it 
not said in the town that you had brought the child back 
to life, and that it happened on account of your prayers ? " 
inquired Beaupere. " I never asked about that," Joan 
answered.^ In the same simple fashion and with a good 
deal of quiet humor, Joan described her meetings with 
Friar Richard and Catherine of La Rochelle.^ 

Several times, in his incoherent examination, Beaupere 
asked about her dress, and almost always she tried to 
evade his questions. It was a small matter, she said, and 
she held no man responsible for it ; if her voices had or- 
dered her to put on another dress, she would have done 
so. When asked if she thought she would commit mortal 
sin if she should put on women's clothes, she answered 
that it was better to obey and serve her sovereign lord, 
that is, God. In truth, she was too modest to say to her 
judges that she felt safer when dressed as a man, and it 
is probable that, even in her own mind, she did not alto- 
gether separate the direct commands of her voices and the 
measures of ordinary prudence which she believed them to 
approve.^ 

At the close of the sixth day of Joan's examination, 
Cauchon told the assessors that he proposed to March 
appoint a committee to make a digest or synopsis ^^' •^^^^• 
of the answers which she had already given. If it should 
appear necessary to examine her further, he did not intend 
to vex the whole body of them by requiring their attend- 

1 P. i. 105. 

2 P. i. 99, 102, 106. 

' P. i. 54, 74, 96. Probably, also, Beanpfere's insistence led her to 
assert a divine command for the dress she wore more direct and 
unqualified than she really wished to claim. 



282 JOAN OF AEC. 

ance in court, but would appoint another committee to 
conduct the second examination, the result of which should 
be submitted to all the assessors in writing. For six days 
in succession ^ the first mentioned committee worked over 
the minutes of the evidence, and prepared a list of sub- 
jects on which Joan should be questioned further.^ 

The subjects thus selected are known only from the 
course of the second examination, which was quite as in- 
coherent as the first. If we consider, however, the suspi- 
cions with which the judges entered upon the trial, and 
the causes of complaint against Joan which they then be- 
lieved themselves to have, we shaU see that the prosecution 
had not yet made out a case as strong as that expected 
from it. Cauchon had decided to call no witness but 
Joan herself ; the depositions taken elsewhere were to be 
used only as suggestions to the prosecuting attorney, and 
J Joan's guilt was to be proved by her testimony alone. 
But the testimony which Joan had given, even if it did 
not show that she was innocent, at least had failed to 
establish her guilt.' It was possible to believe that the 
voices which spoke to her were those of devils, but the 
likelihood of their being angelic or saintly had been in- 
creased by her story. On some minor matters of accusa- 
tion, such as the use of magic and the receiving of idola- 
trous worship, the prosecution had failed utterly, and its 
failure in these lesser things had made less probable the 
principal charge. 

The testimony had had its effect upon those who heard 
it, or at least upon some of them. At the beginning of 
the trial it is probable that all the assessors were more 
or less prejudiced against Joan, but among them were 
several fair-minded men, who really wished to render an 
impartial judgment. These men had been influenced by 
Joan's testimony and bearing, and two or three of them 
spoke their minds to their friends or in public. One 
1 March 4 to 9 inclusive. ^ p, j XW, 112. 



Joan's examination. 283 

could see no great harm in Joan ; another said that, 
if her answers had been but very slightly different, she 
would have cleared herself altogether. Even the ser- 
geant, who led Joan from the prison to the court-room, 
told an acquaintance that nothing discreditable had yet 
appeared in her, though God only knew how she would 
hold out to the end. Cauchon reproved the man severely 
and spoke harshly to the assessors, but their remarks 
were the common gossip of Rouen ; the English became 
alarmed and angry, and the bishop perceived that his 
method of procedure must be changed. It was not easy 
to stop the mouths of half a hundred ecclesiastics, many 
of them men of distinction and of some independence.^ 

For these considerations, rather than from a kindly re- 
gard for the convenience of his colleagues, Cauchon pro- 
posed thereafter to examine Joan in presence of a small 
committee, the members of which he could select. Fur- 
thermore, instead of holding his court in a room to which 
some outsiders may have had access, he determined to go 
to Joan's cell. By this means he not only secured a re- 
tired place for his proceedings, so small that it was im- 
possible to gather there more than eight or ten persons, 
but he also deprived Joan of the relief she had gained 
from the change of scene and the exercise of moving 
from her cell to the court-room. On March 10 ,^ , 

• iiTVT'Ti March 

he went to the tower, accompanied by Midi and 10-12, 
Feuillet, delegates of the University of Paris, 
upon whom he could rely; there were present, besides, 
only his commissary, another lawyer, the sergeant, and the 
notaries. In place of Beaupere, La Fontaine the com- 
missary acted as examiner.^ 

He first asked Joan about her capture before Com- 
piegne, and attempted to show that her voices must have 

1 P. ii. 16, 329, Massieu ; 348, 349, La Pierre ; 354, Marguerie ; 
356, Grouchet ; 373, Riquier. 
3 P. i. 113. 



^^4 JOAN OF ARC. 

come from the Devil, because they had betrayed her to 
her enemies. Joan answered, however, that her voices 
had foretold her capture for weeks, though she had not 
known precisely when it would happen .^ "^ After touching 
upon one or two other matters, La Fontaine began to ask 
about the sign which Joan had given to Charles VII. 

At an earlier examination, as has been said already, 
Joan had begun to play upon words, and to make an alle- 
gory of her coming to Charles, in which she took the part 
of an angel bringing him a sign. The counsel of her 
voices to answer boldly, her sense of humor, tickled by 
the gravity with which her examiners asked their stupid 
questions and misunderstood her figurative answers, and 
her firm belief that she had been really God's messenger 
to give a kingdom to her king, all made her persist in the 
mystification. If her conduct in so dangerous a situation 
seems to us frivolous, we must bear in mind that, ordi- 
narily, she was without the sense of fear. At Beau- 
revoir, indeed, she had been afraid of falling into the 
hands of the English ; but she recognized with shame that 
this fear had led her into sin, indeed had almost been 
a sin in itself, inasmuch as it had implied a distrust 
of her heavenly voices. This sin she would not commit 
again ; her voices were continually telling her to be bold, 
and she was bold. No doubt she expected them in some 
way or other to deliver her from prison, though she did 
not know how. Sometimes she partly realized her situa- 
tion, but during the first part of the trial, at any rate, she 
was almost sure of escape. 

When, therefore. La Fontaine asked her what was the 
sign she had given to the king, she replied that it was 
fair and honorable, trustworthy and good, the richest 
thing that could be. " Does it still remain in existence?" 
inquired La Fontaine. " Sui'ely it does," Joan answered, 
" and it will last for a thousand years and more." " Is 
1 P. i. 114 et seq. 



Joan's examination. 285 

it gold or silver, a precious stone or a crown ? " asked the 
examiner. " I will tell you no more," said Joan. " Man 
could not imagine anything so rich as the sign. For you 
the sign most needed is that God should deliver me out 
of your hands, and that is the surest sign He can send 
you." La Fontaine asked if she had made obeisance to 
the sign. Joan answered that she had gone down upon 
her knees many times, and had thanked God for freeing 
her from the vexations of the clergy. When the king 
and those who were with him had seen the sign and the 
angel who brought it, she had asked the king if he was 
satisfied, and he had answered yes. For love of her, and 
that people might stop asking her questions, God had 
been willing that the men of her party should see the 
sign. In some of her answers, as they are reported, it is 
not easy to discover the allegorical sense, but the notaries 
had no idea what she meant, and, though quite honest, 
they may not have taken down the exact words upon 
which her double meaning depended.^ 

On February 22, as has been said,^ Cauchon had 
written to the inquisitor-general asking that the Holy 
Office take part in Joan's trial. Unable to be present 
himself, on March 12 Graverent sent a commission which 
removed completely the legal scruples of his vicar Le- 
maitre, and gave him full authority to act in the matter.^ 
Lemaitre, however, seems to have done no more than was 
necessary. He had the right to appoint his own prose- 
cuting attorney and sergeant, but, in order to avoid the 
responsibility of choice, he commissioned as officials of 
the Inquisition Estivet and Massieu, who had already 
been appointed by Cauchon. He himself sat silent be- 
side Cauchon, and brought with him a Dominican friar, 
Isambard of La Pierre, who soon began to sympathize 
with Joan.* 

1 P. i. 119 et seq. ' See p. 264, supra. 

3 P. i. 122 et se(j. * P. i. 134= et seq., 148. 



286 JOAN OF ARC. 

Between Monday, March 12, and Saturday, March 18, 
the court sat eight times, always in Joan's 
12-18, cell, twice each on Monday, Wednesday, and 
Saturday, once each on Tuesday and Thursday. 
Six or eight persons only were present ; all picked men 
upon whom Cauchon thought he could rely.^ The exam- 
ination, conducted mostly by La Fontaine, was as inco- 
herent as ever. The questions shifted from one part of 
the case to another and back again, perhaps to bewilder 
Joan, perhaps because at his own want of success the 
examiner himself was perplexed. To avoid utter confu- 
sion, some of Joan's answers, gathered from these eight 
sittings, are grouped together. 

Over and over again, probably with a real curiosity, 
her examiners tried to find out what was the sign she had 
shown to the king, and, under their minute questioning, 
Joan was forced to make her allegory more and more 
elaborate. " Did the angel come down from on high, or 
did he walk along the ground ? " she was asked. " He 
came from on high," Joan answered, "that is, he came 
by the command of our Lord ; he came into the room 
through the door." The examiners inquired what the 
angel did after he had entered the room. "He made 
obeisance to the king," said Joan, " and called to remem- 
brance the noble patience the king had shown under the 
great tribulations which had befallen him." " Where 
did the angel first appear to you ? " asked the examiner. 
" I was almost always praying that God would send the 
sign to the king, and I was in my lodgings with a good 
woman, near the castle, when the angel came ; then we 
went together to the king." The doctor inquired if God 
had sent his angel to her on account of her own merit. 
Joan replied that he had come for a weighty cause, hop- 
ing that the king would believe the sign, and that men 
would cease to dispute with her ; also to bring help to the 
1 Except La Pierre, who was introduced by the inquisitor. 



Joan's examination. 287 

people of Orleans, and for the merit of tLe king and of 
the duke of Orleans. " Why, then, did the angel come to 
you ? " said her questioner. " Because it pleased God," 
Joan answered, "to overthrow the king's enemies by a 
simple maid." ^ 

The like minute inquiry was made concerning the 
appearance of St. Michael, St. Margaret, and St. Cather- 
ine. In what she said about the saints, Joan intended 
no allegory, but she described them with great reserve, 
partly because she was not ready to tell everything she 
had seen, and partly because, from the nature of the reve- 
lation, she knew little of their bodily appearance. She 
knew the archangel, she said, by his speech. Suppose 
the Enemy took the appearance of an angel, how would 
she know him from a real one, asked her questioner. 
Joan was sure that she could tell the difference between a 
true angel and a false one, though, when St. Michael had 
first visited her, she had been doubtful and very fearful. 
The examiner wished to know how she was able to recog- 
nize the angel after several appearances better than at 
first. Joan answered that she knew him by his teaching. 
"What did he teach ? " asked La Fontaine. " Above all, 
he taught me to be a good child," said Joan, " and that 
God would help me ; among other things he bade me go 
to help the king of France, and he told me of the great 
distress of the kingdom." ^ 

Despite their former failure, the examiners again tried 
to prove that Joan had practiced magic and had used tal- 
ismans. She had told them that she loved her banner 
far better tha,n her sword, and upon her banner they 
pitched, asking why she had emblazoned it in the fashion 
she described, who were the angels thereon represented, 
and why there were two angels, neither less nor more. 

- P. i. 139 et seq. 

* " La piti^ qui estoit en royaume de France." See P. i. 170 et 
seq. 



288 JOAN OF ARC. 

Joan was impatient of questions like tliese, and she an- 
swered shortly that her voices had told her to take the 
banner in the name of the King of Heaven. Did she 
pray that she might gain all her battles by virtue of her 
banner, asked the examiner. Joan replied that her voices 
bade her take the banner boldly, and promised that God 
would help her. The persistent La Fontaine then in- 
quired which had been most efficacious in winning the 
victory, the banner or herself. " All depended upon our 
Lord," said Joan. " Did your hope of victory rest upon 
your banner or upon yourself ? " " It rested upon our 
Lord and nowhere else." " If another hand had carried 
the banner, would it have been as lucky as it was when 
you carried it ? " "I know nothing about that ; I leave it 
to God." " If one of your men had lent you his banner, 
and you had carried it, would you have had as good hope 
in it as in the banner which was commanded by God ? — 
suppose, for example, it had been the royal standard." 
" I was more willing to carry the banner commanded me by 
our Lord, but I left everything altogether to our Lord." ^ 
"Why was your banner displayed in the cathedral of 
Rheims, at the king's consecration, rather than the ban- 
ners of the other captains ? " asked the judge. " It had 
shared the trial," Joan answered; " that was good reason 
for its sharing the honor." ^ 

The common belief of the Middle Ages attributed a 
mystic virtue to maidenhood, and Joan had called herself 
the Maid.^ If her strength was not to be found in her 
banner, perhaps it depended upon her virginity. The 
examiner asked accordingly if she knew by revelation 
that in losing her virginity she would lose her good luck 

^ " Toutes voies du tout je m'en actendoye h nostre Seigueur." 

2 P. i. 181 et seq. 

8 So did the common belief of many ancient peoples, but the ascet- 
icism of mediseval Christianity greatly strengthened the natural and 
almost universal feeling. 



Joan's examination. 289 

and would no longer be visited by her voices.^ With all 
her frankness, Joan seems in such matters to have been 
much more shamefaced and modest of speech than was 
common among women of her time. " That has not been 
revealed to me," she said. " If you were married, do you 
believe that your voices would not come to you ? " con- 
tinued her questioner. " I do not know," she answered, 
" and leave that to our Lord." ^ 

Aside from these serious matters, the judges often 
resorted to mere catch questions. " Do you know if St. 
Catherine and St. Margaret hate the English ? " asked 
La Fontaine. " They love what our Lord loves, and 
they hate what God hates," Joan answered. " Does God 
hate the English ? " the examiner then asked. " As for 
God's love or hatred of the English, and as for what he 
will do to their souls, I know nothing," said Joan ; " but 
I know well that they shall be driven out of France, all 
except those who die there, and that God will send vic- 
tory to the French over the English." " Was God for 
the English while they prospered in France ? " continued 
the wily priest. Joan replied that she did not know if 
God hated the French, but she believed that He was will- 
ing to let them be beaten for their sins, if they had com- 
mitted any.^ Afterwards, on the same day, the examiner, 
having put the questions about her marriage already men- 
tioned, suddenly asked if she firmly believed that her 
king had done well to kill the duke of Burgundy. As 
Charles did not openly confess his share in the murder, 
though he was generally believed to be guilty, La Fon- 
taine was begging the question, but Joan did not stop to 
dispute the fact. She answered that the duke's killing 
had been a great injury to the kingdom of France, but 

* Apparently Joan was examined and found a virgin. P. iii. 50, De 
la Chambre ; 89, Marcel ; 155, Massieu ; 163, Boisguillaume ; 175^ 
Fabre. The evidence is not absolutely conclusive. 

a P. i. 183. 3 p. i. 178. 



290 JOAN OF AEC. 

that, however matters might stand between the two men, 
God had sent her to the succor of the king of France.^ 

Though the examiners had had scant success in some of 
the matters just mentioned, yet there were others wherein 
Joan's sins seemed more evident. Inasmuch as one ought 
to honor father and mother, had she done right, asked La 
Fontaine, to leave her home without; their knowledge. 
Joan answered that she had obeyed her parents in all 
things except in the matter of leaving them, and that 
afterwards she had written to them and they had forgiven 
her. Forgiveness after the fact was not enough for the 
doctor, and he inquired if, at the time she was leaving 
her parents, she thought she was not doing wrong. 
" Since God ordered it," said Joan, " it ought to have 
been done. Since God ordered it, though I had had a 
hundred fathers and mothers, even though I had been a 
king's daughter, still I would have left them." ^ 

In jumping from the tower at Beaurevoir, Joan admitted 
that she had taken her life in her hand, and had diso- 
beyed her voices. The judges made the most of this sin, 
but they could get out of Joan nothing more than a frank 
confession of it. La Fontaine asked if she had done 
severe penance therefor. Joan answered that she had 
done a large part of the penance in suffering the pain 
which the fall had caused her. " In taking the leap, do 
you believe that you committed mortal sin ? " inquired 
the doctor. " I know nothing of that," said Joan, " but 
leave it to our Lord." ^ 

Again and again the examiners returned to Joan's 
dress, inasmuch as it seemed to them continuous and defi- 
ant transgression. Her shamefacedness, already spoken 
of, kept her from telling them the whole truth, though 
her meaning must at times have been pretty clear. " Did 
your voices command you to wear men's clothes?" she was 

1 P. i. 183. 2 P. i. 129. 

8 P. i. 161, 169, 172. 



Joan's examination. 291 

asked. " All the good that I have done, I have done at 
the bidding of my voices," she replied, thus evading the 
answer that her voices had directly commanded her dress, 
which probably was not true, " In wearing men's dress, 
did you think you were doing wrong? " was the next ques- 
tion. " No," said Joan, " and even now if I were with the 
other side, in this very man's dress, it seems to me that 
it would be a very good thing for France to do as I did 
before I was taken prisoner." On no account, she said, 
would she swear not to bear arms and dress like a man in 
order to do our Lord's pleasure.^ 

Taking advantage of her wish to hear mass, they asked 
if it did not seem to her more fitting that she should 
hear it in women's clothes. Which did she prefer, they 
continued, to put on women's clothes and hear mass, or 
to keep her men's clothes and not hear mass. " Prom- 
ise me that I shall hear mass, if I am dressed like a 
woman, and I will answer you," said Joan. " I promise 
you," said the examiner. Joan feared a trick, and wa- 
vered for an instant. "And what would you say if I 
had sworn to our king that I would not change my dress ? 
However, I will tell you this. Make me a long dress 
reaching to the ground, without a train, and let me wear 
it to mass, and then after I come back I will put these 
clothes on again." Joan's offer did not satisfy the exam- 
iner, who probably hoped to twist her change of dress into 
a confession of sin, and he insisted that she should put on 
women's clothes without conditions. This, of course, she 
would not do. " Give me a dress like that of a burgher's 
daughter," she said ; " a long cloak and a woman's hood, 
and I will put it on to go and hear mass." Immediately 
afterwards, however, she begged to hear mass dressed as 
she was, and for the time the examiner dropped the sub- 
ject.^ At a later hearing, when Joan began to realize the 
possibility of condemnation, she herself begged the church- 
1 P. i. 132, 177. 2 p, i. 164 et seq. 



292 JOAN OF ARC. 

men present that if she must be stripped for execution 
they would grant her the favor of a woman's smock and 
kerchief. " If you wear men's clothes at God's bidding, 
why at the point of death do you ask for a woman's 
smock? " inquired the examiner. " If it is long, it will be 
sufficient," said Joan, whose modesty would let her say no 
more.^ 

Throughout her trial, Joan's answers regarding her 
dress show that she was not quite sure what she ought to 
do. For the accomplishment of her divine mission, man's 
dress was fitting and almost necessary ; in this sense it 
was worn by God's command, though probably her voices 
had given her no direct commandment to wear it. Against 
the brutality of her keepers it gave her some protection. 
So long as she was a prisoner, however, her mission Avas 
suspended, and, if she was willing to take the risk of ill 
treatment, there might seem no positive sin in changing her 
dress in order to hear mass or to humor her judges. She 
was deterred chiefly by another consideration. Though 
her dress was not directly of divine appointment, though 
it was in itself a small thing, as she recognized, yet in the 
minds of her judges, and of nearly all men, it was so 
closely connected with her mission that to give up one 
appeared to be the denial of the other. The sensitive fear 
lest she should seem disloyal to God made her hesitate to 
do that which was otherwise indifferent, and it explains 
much of her conduct in the last part of the trial. 

Like the belief of all who think themselves inspired, 
Joan's absolute dependence upon God seemed to savor 
both of fatalism and presumption. " Since your voices 
tell you that you will come at last into the realm of para- 
dise, are you assured that you will be saved, and not 
damned in hell ? " asked the examiner. Joan answered 
that she believed the promise of salvation made her by her 
voices as firmly as if she were already in heaven. " That 
1 P. i. 176. 



Joan's examination. 293 

is a weighty answer," said La Fontaine. Joan replied 
that she held it to be a great treasure. " After this reve- 
lation, do you think that you cannot commit mortal sin ? " 
insinuated the examiner, " I know nothing about that," 
said Joan, " but I leave it altogether to our Lord." ^ 

Even if every other device failed, there was one trap 
into which Joan was sure to fall. It was the last resort 
of the examiners,^ and they made use of it with consider- 
able skill. Joan had asserted that she was God's messen- 
ger, commissioned by Him through the voice of saints and 
angels. It was possible, to say the least, that her inspira- 
tion was from the Devil. Was she willing to leave the 
decision of the question to the church ? If she refused 
submission, her guilt was established, for to deny the 
authority of the church was at once the commonest and 
the deadliest of heresies. If she submitted, then the eccle- 
siastical tribunal before which she stood was ready to 
assume the functions of the church, and to decide the 
question against her. 

In her religious belief, Joan was a devout Catholic of 
the fifteenth century, holding heartily and without ques- 
tion all the doctrines of the church. From the least taint 
of Protestantism in any form, of the doctrines of Huss or 
Wiclif, she was absolutely free ; indeed, she seems to have 
regarded the Hussites with most orthodox abhorrence. 
The supreme authority of the church she doubted no more 
than she doubted the heavenly nature of her visitors. Of 
both she was absolutely sure, and, for a time at least, she 
could see no difficulty in her assurance of them both. 
The difficulty existed, however, and her judges made the 

1 P. i. 155. 

2 As has been said, the examination was not conducted in any defi- 
nite order, and many other accusations were persisted in after disobe- 
dience to the church was suggested ; but, on the whole, this accusation 
was the last made, and its comparative importance increased as the 
trial proceeded. 



294 JOAN OF AEG. 

most of it. She ought to allow the church, they told her, 
to decide if she had offended against the true faith. Joan 
replied by asking that her answers should be examined 
by the clergy, and that these should tell her if there was 
anything in them contrary to the Christian faith. She 
for her part would be well advised in the matter by her 
council, and would tell them what was revealed to her. 
If she had done anything against the Christian faith, she 
was very sorry and would not persist in it. 

They then explained to her the difference between the 
church militant and the church triumphant, and asked 
her if she would allow the church on earth to determine 
whether she had done well or ill. Suspecting with very 
good reason that the judges before her claimed the whole 
authority of the church militant, Joan evaded the question 
by replying that she would not answer them further for 
the present.^ 

About an hour afterwards they returned to the attack 
and asked her abruptly if she would submit her words 
and acts to the church. "My deeds," Joan answered, 
" are all in the hands of God, and I leave them to Him. 
I assure you that I would do or say nothing against 
the Christian faith. If I had done or said anything, or 
if I had any charm about me, which the priests could 
say was against the Christian faith which our Lord has 
established, I would not hold it, but I would cast it 
away." The examiner persisted in his question : Would 
she submit herself to the decree of the church ? Again 
Joan hesitated. " I will not now answer you any fur- 
ther," she said, "but on Saturday send me a priest, if 
you will not come yourself, and I will answer him with 
God's help, and it shall be put down in writing." ^ 

This happened on Thursday. On Saturday the ex- 
aminer again repeated his question. As to the church, 
Joan answered, she loved it and would uphold it with all 
1 P. i. 162. 2 P. i. 166. 



Joan's examination. 295 

her might, and. slie added that she ought not to be kept 
from going to church or from hearing mass. As for the 
good deeds she had. done, and as for her coming to court, 
she must leave all to the King of Heaven, who had sent 
her to Charles, the son of Charles, king of France, who 
should be king of France himself. " And you will see," 
she went on, "that the French shall soon gain a great 
victory, which God shall give them, a victory so great 
that it will shake almost the whole kingdom of France. 
When it happens, remember that I told you." 

" At what time will it happen ? " asked the judge. " I 
leave that to our Lord," Joan answered. 

Aofain the examiner asked her if she would submit to 
the decision of the church. " I will submit to our Lord, 
who sent me," Joan replied, " and to our Lady, and to all 
the blessed saints in paradise." Our Lord and the church 
seemed all the same to her, she added, and they ought 
not to make a difference between the two, and she asked 
why they tried to make out a difference in that which was 
all one. 

They explained to her the church triumphant, — God, 
the saints and angels, and the souls in bliss ; and the 
church militant, — our holy father the pope, God's vicar 
on earth, the cardinals, bishops, and clergy, and all good 
catholic Christians, — which church lawfully assembled 
cannot err, but is directed by the Holy Ghost. Would she 
submit herself to the church militant as they explained it 
to her ? "I have come to the king of France by God's 
command," she answered, " by the command of the Virgin 
Mary and all the blessed saints in paradise, and by the 
command of the church victorious on high, and to that 
church I will submit all my good deeds, and all I have 
done or have to do. As to submitting to the church mili- 
tant, I will say nothing more." ^ 

1 P. i. 174 et seq. 



CHAPTER XXn. 

THE ARTICLES. 

On March 18 was finished the taking of testimony for 
the inquest or informatio -prcBjiaratoria. All 
18-27, the testimony was then read over to Joan, and 
with one or two trifling exceptions she acknow- 
ledged it. The court had next to decide if it was sufficient 
to bring her to trial, or, in the phraseology of the Eng- 
lish law, to justify the finding of an indictment. A digest 
of it was prepared by Estivet, the prosecuting attorney, 
which corresponded somewhat to the indictment itself. 
In the first place, this digest was to be approved by the 
court as showing sufficient cause for trying Joan, and after 
such approval it was to serve as a basis for her further 
examination. While Estivet was engaged in this work, 
some of the assessors looked up precedents and authorities 
and tried to make themselves familiar with what we 
should call the law of the case, as distinguished from its 
facts. On March 26 Estivet read to the court his digest 
or articles, which were pronounced sufficient by Cauchon 
and Lemaitre, apparently without taking the opinion of 
the assessors. The bishop directed that Joan should be 
brought before him, on the following day, to answer the 
chai'ges.^ It is time to consider what effect her testi- 
mony had already produced on those who had heard it. 

At the beginning of the trial all these men were pre- 
judiced against Joan, and had little doubt of her guilt. 
With many, probably with most of them, the prejudice 
rested upon what they had heard, the stories about her 
1 P. i. 188 et seq., 194. 



THE ARTICLES. 297 

which circulated among the Anglo-Burgundians. With 
some of the hearers, like Cauchon, this natural and un- 
avoidable prejudice was joined to the bitterest partisan 
hatred. Some of the assessors had believed Joan guilty, 
but had cared little whether she were guilty or not ; others 
had not only believed her guilty, but had wished her con- 
viction even more than they thought it just. 

The fairer-minded assessors were in great perplexity. 
Joan's bearing had pleased them, and many of the charges 
against her had been disproved ; yet in her conduct there 
was much to rouse suspicion : her presumptuous confi- 
dence in her voices, her obstinacy in wearing men's 
clothes, above all, her hesitation in submitting herself to 
the church. Some of these men honestly doubted whether 
Joan were a witch or the messenger of God, and wished 
to find out the truth. 

Unfortunately, there were obstacles to the discovery of 
the ti'uth beside the intrinsic difficulty of the case. The 
court sat in order to condemn Joan to death, as all its 
members well knew, reminded from time to time by the 
growing impatience of the English soldiers and by the 
exhibition of Cauchon's fixed purpose. It was nearly as 
much as a man's life was worth to express a doubt of 
Joan's guilt or of the validity of the proceedings. Those 
who did so generally left Rouen at once.^ Under the 
circumstances, a doubting and timid priest dared not 
openly withstand Cauchon, but, in the deliberations of 
the court, generally voted for delay at every stage of the 
proceedings, meanwhile trying to induce Joan to con- 
fess her guilt or promise obedience, in the hope that she 
might be let off with imprisonment rather than be put to 
death. 

Joan's partisan enemies, also, had changed their attitude 
during her examination. At first, they had been so sure 
of their case that they were ready to give her a fair trial, 
1 See P. u. 348. 



298 JOAN OF ARC. 

intending to get both conclusive proof of guilt and, at 
last, a full confession of it. Instead of confessing guilt, 
she had practically disproved some of the charges against 
her, had left the truth of others in doubt, and had con- 
fessed nothing, except the leap from the tower at Beau- 
revoir. Cauchon had not been able even to bribe her 
to change her dress. He and his supporters had come to 
realize that many of their colleagues were beginning to 
pity her, and they devoted themselves not only to proving 
Joan guilty, but to making her appear guilty by fair 
means or foul. 

The two strongest reasons for believing Joan to be a 
witch were her dress and her insubordination ; wrong in 
themselves, these things also made it unlikely that she 
was visited by saintly counselors. So important was it to 
convince the doubters of her obduracy, that at this time 
Cauchon probably did not wish her to yield on either of 
these points, while he tried to make her obstinacy odious 
to the assessors. On Palm Sunday, March 25, with three 
or four men upon whom he could rely, he went to Joan's 
cell and asked her if she would put on women's clothes 
provided she were allowed to hear mass in them. The 
great importance which he attached to the matter and the 
high price which he offered for her consent strengthened 
Joan's suspicions, as he probably wished ; and she refused, 
asking to hear mass dressed as she was, and saying that 
her clothes did not burden her conscience. The prose- 
cuting attorney, Estivet, thereupon took a note of her 
contumacy.^ 

At this stage of the proceedings, Joan's submission to 
the church would have been very embarrassing to Cau- 
chon, for it would certainly have caused delay, beside 
strengthening the friendliness felt for her by some of the 
assessors. Several of these were trying to induce her to 
submit, and Cauchon thought it best to make her most 
1 P. i. 191 et seq. 



THE ARTICLES. 299 

generous ofEers ; but he worded them so as to rouse her 
suspicions and caused her to be privately warned by 
Loiseleur or some other spy that, if she submitted to the 
church, she would find that she had submitted to himself. 
Very probably Joan perceived this without Loiseleur's 
help.i 

On Tuesday in Holy Week, March 27, Joan was 
brought from her cell to a chamber of the cas- 
tle where were assembled the bishop, the vice-in- 27-28, 
quisitor, and about forty assessors. Before read- ^^ ^* 
ing the articles of indictment, Estivet addressed the court, 
praying that Joan be compelled to answer on oath the 
several articles to the best of her knowledge and belief, 
and that, if she refused to swear, she be considered in 
default and excommunicated accordingly. Should she 
fail to answer any of the counts after swearing to do so, 
he asked that they be taken as proved against her.^ 

The court took this request under advisement, and 
Cauchon called upon the assessors, one after another, to 
deliver their opinions. The first who spoke, a canon of 
Eouen, eagerly voted to proceed as Estivet had asked. 
Another canon, who spoke next, suggested that the indict- 
ment should first be read, and his opinion was supported 
by the two canons who followed him.^ Thereafter nearly 
as many opinions were expressed as there were assessors, 
but only seven or eight of those voting were ready to 
grant the prosecutor's request, while many of them de- 
clared that Joan ought to have time for considering her 
answer, in case she wished it.* 

1 P. ii. 327, Houppeville ; 332, Massieu. 

2 P. i. 195 et seq. 

8 It is to be observed that Venderes, the first canon, took office 
after the English capture of the city, while Pinchon, the second, had 
been chosen before the war broke out. See Beaurepaire, Notes sur 
lesjuges, 88, 94. 

* P. i. 198 et seq. 



^00 JOAN OF ARC. 

Cauchon accepted the vote with as good a grace as he 
could assume, and bade Joan answer as to those matters 
of which she had knowledge, offering her a reasonable 
delay, if she desired delay in answering any particular 
article. He then made her a little address, saying that 
the court intended to proceed with all kindness and gen- 
tleness, seeking not to punish her body, but to bring her 
back into the way of truth and salvation. He told her 
that she might choose one or more of the persons pres- 
ent to act as her counsel, and he offered, if she so desired, 
to make the choice himself.^ 

No doubt this speech had its effect upon the timid 
assessors, who wished to believe that Cauchon was acting 
with reasonable fairness, but there was no one whom Joan 
dared to trust. " For what you say about my well-being 
and our Christian faith," ^ she said, " I thank you and all 
the present company. For your offer of counsel, I thank 
you, too, but I have no intention of leaving the counsel 
of our Lord. As to the oath which you wish me to take, 
I am ready to swear to tell the truth about all which con- 
cerns this trial of yours." ^ 

Courcelles, a learned delegate of the University of 
Paris, then stood up, and, after a short opening, in which 
he exhausted upon Joan the vocabulary of abuse,* began 
to read the indictment.^ It was a portentous instrument,® 
in seventy articles or counts, the reading of which, with 
Joan's comments, took the rest of that day and the whole 

1 P. i. 200. 

2 « Nostre foy." 

3 P. i. 201. 

* Apparently this preface was written by Estivet, and merely read 
by Courcelles. No doubt the abuse was partly a technical summary 
of the articles. 

^ I use the word " indictment " as expressing better than any other 
one English word the nature of the articles proposed by the " pro- 
motor seu procurator officii." 

« P. i. 204-323. 



THE ARTICLES. 301 

of the next. The first three counts were introductory, 
the last five a rhetorical peroration with conclusions of 
law ; the remaining sixty-two accused her of heresy, witch- 
craft, idolatry or blasphemy in connection with nearly 
every event of her life. Four concerned the use of charms 
in her childhood,^ six the wearing of men's clothes,^ three 
her political and military conduct,^ five her correspondence 
with the count of Armagnac,* five her arms and banner,^ 
three her leap at Beaurevoir,® twelve or more her visions 
and voices ; '^ only one specifically charged her refusal to 
submit to the church.^ Other counts concerned her life 
at Neufchateau and Vaucouleurs, her relations with her 
early suitor and with Baudricourt, her boastfulness, pre- 
sumptuousness, and love of riches. 

Nearly every one of these counts was followed by ex- 
cerpts from Joan's testimony, as if to support the charge 
therein contained. Not uncommonly, however, the testi- 
mony cited was a formal denial. Thus the seventh count 
charged Joan with carrying about the herb mandragora 
in reliance upon its efficacy, while the testimony cited to 
sustain the count consisted simply of her assertion that 
she had never carried mandragora, had not even see itv 
did not know what it was good for, and did not believe 
in it.^ So the forty-seventh count, which charged her 
with blasphemous swearing, was supported by three sev- 
eral denials that she had ever done anything of the sort.^^ 
Only once was any testimony cited except her own. The 
fifty-sixth count rested upon the statement of Catherine 
of La Rochelle made to the ecclesiastical authorities of 
Paris. Somehow or other that foolish woman had found 
her way to the capital, perhaps with the intention of 
carrying out her favorite plan of converting the duke of 

^ iv.-vii. 2 xii.-xvi., xl. ^ xviii., liii., liv. 

* xxvi.-xxx. ^ xix.-xxi., Iviii., lix. ® xli., xlvii., Ixiv. 

' xxxi.-xxxvii., xlii.-xlv., xlviii., li., Ivi. * Ixi. 

9 P. i. 213. i« P. i. 272. 



302 JOAN OF ARC. 

Burgundy. Being taken in hand by the English authori. 
ties, she had vented her spite against Joan by telling a 
story about two Councilors of the Fountain, said to be 
in Joan's service, and by a warning that Joan, unless 
well watched, would escape from prison with the Devil's 
help. Possibly the whole affair was planned by La 
Tremoille ; at any rate, the Parisian authorities were so 
well satisfied with Catherine that they let her go back to 
Charles. Joan answered this farrago by saying that she 
did not knov/ what a Councilor of the Fountain might be, 
though she thought that the saints had once spoken to 
her at the fountain near Domremy ; on her oath she did 
not wish to be taken out of prison by the Devil.^ 

As Estivet read the counts one by one, Joan was called 
on to answer them severally. Many times she simply 
referred her judges to what she had said already ; some- 
times, exasperated or wearied by their misunderstandings, 
she told them that she left the whole matter to God.^ 
Though she had usually been cautious in her answers, 
even at the beginning of the proceedings, yet occasionally 
she had been very frank, perhaps hoping that some of her 
judges meant to treat her fairly. She remembered that 
she had formerly been able to win over hostile or indiffer- 
ent hearers, and she may have hoped to do so again ; 
there had been a time when she had hoped that even the 
English generals would heed her. As she came to under- 
stand fully that Cauchon and those who controlled her 
trial intended by all means to convict her, she suspected 
a trap in every question, and was unwilling to do anything 
they asked of her. Generally, she was right in refusing, 
but her conduct furnished an excuse to those assessors 
who dared not declare her innocent, and yet did not wish 
unjustly to declare her guilty. To the charge that she 
would not put off men's clothes, even to receive the 

1 P. i. 295 et seq. ; iv. 473, n. ; Beaucourt, ii. 268. 

2 P. i. 284, 291, 295. 



THE ARTICLES. 303 

JSucliarlst, a matter concerning which she had long hesi- 
tated, she now said definitely that she would not change 
her dress to receive the sacrament, or for any other pur- 
pose.^ The next count, the fifteenth, charged her with 
pretending that to obey her judges in this matter would 
displease God. Joan answered that she would rather die 
than renounce what she had done by the commandment 
of our Lord, and that as yet she could not change her 
dress, or even fix a time for changing it.^ By his per- 
sistent demands, Cauchon had brought her to believe that 
her dress, instead of being a matter of expediency, as she 
had once considered it, was a divinely ordered part of 
her mission. If the judges would not let her hear mass, 
she added, it was in our Lord's power to cause her to hear 
it in spite of them, when it pleased Him. 

Notv/ithstanding the number of the counts, their ambi- 
guity and want of arrangement, and the rapidity with 
which she was forced to reply to them, Joan showed great 
keenness and discrimination in her answers. They 
charged her with asserting that she was sent by God for 
violence and bloodshed. " First I asked them to make 
peace," said Joan, " and in case they would not make 
peace, I was ready to fight." ^ When they reported that 
she had said, " All that I have done is by the counsel of 
our Lord," she corrected them, " All the good that I have 
done."* The fifty-first count charged her with boasting 
that Gabriel had come to her with a million of angels, 
Joan replied that she did not remember having mentioned 
the number.^ " Contrary to the commands of God and 
the saints," so ran the fifty-third count, "the said Joan 
presumptuously and proudly undertook the government 
of men, by constituting herself the chief and leader of an 
army sometimes numbering sixteen thousand men, in 
which were princes, barons, and many other nobles, all of 

1 P. i. 225. 2 P. i. 227. » P. i. 243. 

* P. i. 250. 6 p. i, 283. 



304 JOAN OF ARC. 

whom she caused to serve under her, as under a coni« 
mander-in-chief." " If I was commander-in-chief," said 
Joan, " it was to heat the English." ^ 

Even in answering the indictment, Joan spoke once or 
twice with her old frankness, perhaps in the faint hope 
that some of her judges might yet be persuaded of the 
truth.2 The fiftieth count charged her with calling her 
voices to her help and consulting them about her answers. 
" I will call them to my help as long as I live," said Joan. 
" How do you pray to them ? " asked Cauchon. " T beg 
our Lord and our Lady to send me counsel and comfort, 
and they send it to me." " By what words do you pray 
to them ? " insisted the judge. " Dearest God, for the 
honor of your holy passion, I pray you, if you love me, 
tell me how I ought to answer these priests. As for my 
dress, I know well the command I had to put it on, but I 
do not know how I ought to take it off. Therefore please 
you teach me. Then they come to me soon." " Through 
my voices I often hear news of you," she added. " What 
do they say of me?" asked the astonished and curious 
bishop, not quite easy in his mind. " I will tell you when 
we are alone together," said Joan. "To-day they have 
come to me three times," she went on with the same 
frankness. " Were they in your chamber ? " asked Cau- 
chon. "I have told you about that," Joan answered, 
half amused and half irritated at the bare materialism 
of the questions ; " at any rate, I heard them well. St. 
Catherine and St. Margaret told me how I should an- 
swer about this dress of mine." ^ On that occasion, as 
on many others, probably they had told her to answer 
boldly. 

In reply to the sixty-first count, which charged her 
with refusing to submit her deeds to the church militant, 
Joan had said that she wished to render to the church 
all possible honor and reverence, but that she must sub- 

1 P. i. 293. 2 See P. ii. 361, Miget. 3 p. j. 279. 



THE ARTICLES. 305 

mit lier deeds to our Lord, who had made her do them. 
Being further pressed, she had asked three days' delay, 
until Saturday.^ On Saturday, being Easter Eve, ^^j.^,]^ 
Cauchon visited her in prison with eight or nine ^i' i^^i. 
of his trustiest assessors. Joan had taken counsel of her 
voices and had made up her mind what to say. Cauchon 
asked her if she would submit to the church all she had 
done, both good and bad, including the crimes with which 
she was charged. She answered that she would leave all 
to the church militant, provided that it did not bid her do 
that which was impossible. " What do you consider im- 
possible ? " asked the bishop. " It is impossible that I 
should declare that what I have done and said, and what 
I have testified to at this trial about my visions and reve- 
lations, has not been done and said by God's orders," 
said Joan ; " and these things I will not deny on any ac- 
count ; and that which God has commanded me and shall 
command me to do, I will not renounce for any man liv- 
ing, and it is impossible for me to deny God's orders. In 
case the church shall wish to make me do anything con- 
trary to the commandment God has given me, I will not 
do it on any account." ^ 

The answer showed an obstinacy so satisfactory that 
Cauchon thought he might press her even farther, for the 
satisfaction of the doubting assessors. Suppose that the 
church militant should say that her revelations were either 
mere delusions, or else the wiles of the Devil, would she 
submit them to the church, he craftily asked. Joan re- 
plied that she would submit her deeds to our Lord, whose 
commandment she would always obey. That which she 
had testified about in the trial had happened to her by 
God's appointment, and whatever she had declared in the 
trial that she had done by his commandment she could 
not deny. In case the church militant should command 
her to deny it, she would not allow any man in the world, 
1 P. i. 314. 2 P. i. 324. 



306 JOAN OF ARC. 

but only our Lord, to forbid ber to do bis good com- 
mands. Did sbe not tbink tbat sbe was subject to tbe 
church on earth, that is to say, the pope, cardinals, arch- 
bishops, bishops, and other prelates, insisted Cauchon, 
wishing to clinch the matter. "Yes, our Lord being 
first served," ^ said Joan. The answer was not altogether 
what Cauchon had expected, and, changing the form of 
the question, he asked if it was by the command of ber 
voices that she refused to submit to the church militant 
on earth. Joan replied tbat her answers did not come 
out of her own bead, but were made by the command of 
her voices, and these did not command ber to disobey the 
church, our Lord being first served.^ Cauchon dropped 
tbe matter and left the prison. Joan passed her Easter 
without mass or communion. 

The articles of indictment prepared by Estivet, com- 
Aprili^, prehensive as they were, did not satisfy the 
1^31. court. On some of the counts it was impossible 

for a self-respecting man to find Joan guilty. During sev- 
eral days in Easter week, Cauchon and some picked asses- 
sors labored to reduce tbe unwieldy indictment to a series 
of findings not too outrageously unfair. Apart from bis 
exordiiun and peroration, as has been said, Estivet bad 
framed sixty-two articles. More than twenty-five of 
these were now passed over altogetber,^ and several others 
in large part ; what remained was condensed into twelve 
articles, of which the first was both an introduction and a 
synopsis. The other eleven severally dealt with the sign 
given to Charles," Joan's belief in ber saintly visitors, ber 
propbecies,^dress, and manner of signing her letters, ner 
relations with Baudricourt and the kingVher leap at Beau- 
revoir, ber assurance of salvation, her statement that her 

^ " Ouil, nostre Sire premier servi." P. i. 326. 

2 P. i. 325 et seq. 

3 iv.-ix., xi., XX., xxi., xxvi.-xxx., xlii., xlvii., lii.-lix., Ixiii., lxv.,and 
perhaps others. 



THE AETICLES. 307 

voices favored the Freneli, her veneration of the voices, 
and her refusal to submit to the church. Her belief in 
charms, her Councilors of the Fountain, her suitor, her 
armor, ring and banner, her assertion that St. Michael 
had liair, her fighting on feast days, her correspondence 
with the count of Armagnac and her love of riches, all 
this and much more disappeared.^ 

In their form, these twelve new articles differed alto- 
gether from Estivet's seventy.^ They were not framed as 
an indictment, but resembled what is called technically a 
special verdict ; that is to say, a bare statement of facts 
upon which the court might base its decision concerning 
the guilt or innocence of the accused. The twelve arti- 
cles were free from vituperation, and stated nothing 
which had not some support from Joan's testimony, but 
they were skillfully prepared to give the most unfavorable 
impression consistent with literal truth. Though these 
articles were never approved by the great body of asses- 
sors, they were ever afterwards taken as a correct abstract 
of Joan's life, acts, and confessions. 

1 P. i. 328-336. 

' Seventy, including the introduction and conclusion. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE CONVICTION AND THE EECANTATION. 

Aftee Cauchon had thus found the facts of the case to 
April 5- bis satisfaction, he prepared to take the next step 
17, 1431. jjj ^}jQ proceedings, and to determine if the facts 
thus found established Joan's guilt. He did not propose 
to pass upon this question unaided, and as soon as the 
articles were framed, on April 5, he submitted them to 
the assessors and to many learned men in Rouen and else- 
where, asking if any part of the language Joan had used 
appeared to contradict the true faith, Holy Scripture, the 
Roman church, or the decisions of the church's doctors ; 
also, if the same appeared scandalous, rash, seditious, in- 
sulting, criminal, immoral, or in any way offensive. An 
answer was requested in five days.^ 

The time was far too short, even for such a tribunal, and 
almost immediately it seems to have been extended. On 
April 12,'^ one week after the articles were published, 
twenty-two doctors and learned men, most of whom had 
served as assessors, met in the chapel of the archbishop's 
palace. Some of them were men upon whom Cauchon 
could rely, others were indifferent or even friendly to Joan. 
Sitting almost in public, dreading the English soldiers, 
who were angry at the law's delay, all those present 
yielded and joined in one opinion. This declared that 
Joan's visions did not come from God, and that the ad- 
mitted facts showed her to have been guilty of conduct 

1 P. i. 327. 

2 So in the official report, i. 337 ; but see 424, 425, 428, where it is 
said to have been April 9. 



THE CONVICTION AND THE RECANTATION. 309 

scandalous, irreligious, and presumptuous, of blasphemy, 
impiety, schism, and heresy. Many other persons to whom 
the articles were sent eagerly availed themselves of this 
opinion, and simply declared their adherence to it, without 
further comment. Cauchon doubtless intended that it 
should have this effect, and that it should serve to quiet 
uneasy consciences. 

About the middle of April, Joan fell ill. Warwick 
and the cardinal of Winchester, having the command in 
Rouen, sent for several physicians, to whom the earl spoke 
with great frankness. On no account, said he, was the 
king willing that Joan should die a natural death. She 
was dear to him, for he had bought her dear, and the 
physicians must take good care to cure her. They went 
to her cell accordingly, and found her feverish and sick at 
the stomach, certainly not an unnatural condition, when 
the foul air of the cell, her close confinement in chains, 
and the long-continued strain upon her nerves are con- 
sidered. They felt her pulse, sounded her on the left side, 
and recommended bleeding, according to the practice of 
the day. Warwick hesitated to allow it. " Take care," 
he said, " she is tricky, and may kill herself." He yielded 
to their advice, however, and she began to mend at once ; 
it is needless to say that she had no more intention of 
suicide than had Warwick himself.^ 

Before her recovery was complete, Cauchon visited her 
again to ask the oft-repeated question about her April 18 
submission to the church. His precise intention ^*^^- 
is not quite clear. Her refusals, becoming more and more 
obstinate as she became sure that he meant only to entrap 
her, undoubtedly were persuading the hesitating assessors 
to find her guilty, and at times Cauchon j)lainly wished 
to be refused. On the other hand, at some time or 
other she must be brought to submission. If she died 
unrepentant, the French might still believe in her, and 
^ P. iii. 46, Tiphaine ; 49, De la Chambre. 



310 JOAN OF ARC. 

might maintain that she had been put to death unjustly. 
Cauchon's original position, that of a prejudiced judge 
who wishes justly to punish a person undoubtedly guilty, 
had gradually changed to that of an advocate, wishing by 
all means to convict an accused person, concerning whose 
guilt or innocence he cares little. 

Having gone to Joan's cell, accompanied by several 
assessors, he told her that they all were come to bring her 
consolation and comfort in her sickness. He pointed out 
to her that she was illiterate and ignorant, and again he 
offered her honest and benevolent men for her instruction.^ 
He then exhorted the assessors present to give her counsel 
fruitful for the saving of her soul and body, and he added 
that they all were churchmen willing and ready in all 
possible ways to help her as they would help their neigh- 
bors and themselves. If she refused to hear them, and 
trusted to her own judgment and to her inexperience, they 
must leave her ; in that case she must consider the peril 
into which she would fail, a peril fi-om which with all his 
strength and affection he was seeking to save her.^ 

This discourse was higlily edifying to the assessors, no 
doubt, but the sick girl had come to distrust Cauchon 
so thorouglily that she disbelieved what he said, simply 
because he said it. " Considering how sick I am," she 
answered, " it seems to me that I am in great peril of 
death. If so be God wills to do his pleasure on me, I 
beg you to let me be confessed, and receive my Saviour, 
and be buried in consecrated ground." ^ 

Cauchon told her that she could not be treated as a 
good Catholic unless she submitted to the church. " If 
my body dies in prison," said Joan, " I depend upon your 
putting it in consecrated ground ; if you do not do so, I 
depend upon our Lord." The bishop insisted, and the 
discussion was continued between him and Joan in the 
usual fashion, though her answers are marked by weari- 
i P. i. 373. 2 p. I 376. s p, j. 377. 



THE CONVICTION AND THE RECANTATION. 311 

ness. At last Cauchon asked her if she did not wish to 
have made a fine and notable procession in order to bring 
her back into a good state, if she was not in one. Thus 
qualified, Cauchon's proposition seemed a fair one, but the 
proposed procession, if authorized by Joan, would have 
appeared to be a notable proof of her repentance for her 
evil deeds. Joan answered that she wished very much 
that the church and all Catholics should pray for her. 
Thereupon the bishop withdrew.^ 

Contests like these did Joan no good, and the foul 
abuse heaped upon her one day by Estivet, the prosecuting 
attorney, brought back her fever. The cautious Warwick 
interfered and forbade Estivet access to her cell. Thus 
relieved, her youth and healthy constitution soon got the 
better of her sickness, as they had done at Beaurevoir, 
and she was well again.^ 

In spite of the threats of the English and the wheedling 
and ingenuity of Cauchon, the opinion of the asses- AprU 18- 
sors concerning Joan's guilt was not so decided ^' ^^^^* 
as the bishop had hoped. Some wished to wait for the 
opinion of the University of Paris,^ some professed their 
ignorance and wished to leave the decision to those more 
learned than themselves, others took refuge in generalities. 
She was guilty, wrote John Basset, provided that her pre- 
tended revelations did not come from God ; " which I do 
not believe," he added in his timid perplexity.* Three 
others were more outspoken in their doubt. If Joan's 
statements proceeded from an evil spirit or were made 
up by herseK, they were as bad as the bishop's questions 
implied ; if, on the other hand, they came from God, which 

^ P. i. 377 et seq. 

^ P. iii. 48, Tiphaine ; 52, De la Chambre. Apparently, Joan 
thought that her illness was caused by eating a carp which Cauchon 
had sent her ; it does not appear whether she suspected poison or 
not. 

8 See P. i. 350, 351, 355, 360. 

4 P. i. 343. 



312 JOAN or ARC. 

was not evident, no unfavorable interpretation should be 
put upon them.i Even the chapter of the cathedral of 
Rouen hesitated. At the first meeting no quorum ap- 
peared, and it was found necessary to threaten the absen- 
tees with the loss of a week's rations. When the chapter 
met a second time, the majority refused to pass upon 
Joan's guilt until she had again been warned to submit, 
and until the answer of the University of Paris should 
be received. 2 

Under these circiimstances there was nothing for it but 
May 2, to send messengers to the university, and to 
^^^^- administer another " charitable warning." On 
May 2, nearly a month after he had originally published 
the twelve articles, Cauchon gathered a great assembly of 
more than sixty assessors and made them an address. 
He informed them that for some time he had known well 
that the woman was very fault}'^, though no final judg- 
ment against her had been rendered. Before rendering 
judgment, it had seemed to many honest and conscien- 
tious men that he ought by every means to try to bring 
her into the way of truth. This had been attempted with 
all kindness by many learned doctors, but, through the 
craft of the Devil, as yet nothing had been accomplished ; 
wherefore he had deputed John of Castillon, archdeacon 
of Evreux, to reason with the woman in the presence of 
the whole assembly, and to induce her to depart from her 
faults and crimes.^ 

Joan was then brought before the court, and was gen- 
erally warned by the archdeacon to mend her deeds and 
words. When he paused, Joan advised him to go on and 
finish the written address which he held in his hand. 
" Then," said she, " I will answer you. I leave all to 

1 P. i. 369. 

2 P. i. 353, n. 

^ P. i. 381 et seq. For Castillon, see Beaurepaire, Notes sur les 
luges, 114. 



THE CONVICTION AND THE RECANTATION. 313 

God,^ my Creator ; I love Him with all my heart. I 
leave it to my judge/ who is the King of heaven and 
earth." Castillon went forward, accordingly, with an 
address in six heads,^ concerning her clothes, her want of 
submission, her boasted sinlessness, her sign to Charles, 
her leap at Beaurevoir, and other matters. His tone and 
his assumptions were such as to make Joan's submission 
an impossibility, and probably he, or Cauchon for him, 
intended to prevent any submission. 

This, at any rate, was the result. " I am sure that the 
church militant can neither err nor fail," said Joan, " but 
as to my deeds and words, I leave them altogether to 
God, who made me do whatever I have done." If she 
did not submit, they told her, she woidd be adjudged a 
heretic and burned. " I will say nothing more to you," 
she answered. " Even if I should see the fire, I should 
say what I am saying now." ^ The steady insistence of 
Cauchon had driven her to refuse submission much more 
emphatically than she would have done two months be- 
fore. Not improbably, also, Loiseleur had been at work, 
strengthening her suspicions. 

Encouraged by her obstinacy, Cauchon risked an offer 
bolder than any he had yet made. Would she leave to 
the archbishop of Rheims, La Tremoille, La Hire, and 
others of her own party, the determination of the sign, 
shown to Charles VII., asked the examiner. Joan was 
caught in her own play upon words, for no one but 
herself understood her double meaning, and, besides, she 
did not trust Cauchon to state the question fairly to the 
French. " Give me a messenger, and I will write to them 
all about this trial," she answered ; upon no other terms 

^ " Je me actend k Dieu, mon cr^ateur, de tout. Je m'en aetend k 
mon juge." Literally, "I wait upon God," in the biblical sense. 
P. i. 385. 

2 P. i. 386-392. 

3 P. i. 392, 393. 



314 JOAN OF ARC. 

would she accept their decision. Supposing that three 
or four knights of her own party should be brought to 
Eouen by safe-conduct, would she leave the matter of her 
visions to their decision, insisted the bishop, who saw that 
she was ready to refuse everything. Joan told him to bring 
the men first, and then she would answer him. She feared, 
as he intended her to fear, that he was tricking her, or, 
perhaps, that some knights of La Tremoille's faction 
might be found who would not be unwilling to condemn 
her. Her obstinacy satisfied Cauchon, and he closed the 
hearing, warning her solemnly that she was in danger of 
being abandoned by the church, and so of losing her soul 
in eternal, her body in temporal fire. He could not cow 
her. " You cannot do to me as you say," she answered, 
" without evil befalling you, both body and soul." ^ 

At last the chapter of Rouen was convinced, and de- 
May 4-8, clared its belief that Joan was a heretic, basing 
^^^^' its opinion largely upon her refusal to submit 

to the judgment of those of her own party.^ Some 
other waverers were won over,^ and nearly all the per- 
sons consulted committed themselves in writing to the 
opinion that Joan was guilty. Cauchon could trust the 
University of Paris, whose opinion had not yet come to 
hand. 

Though he had brought the assessors to agree to Joan's 
condemnation, the bishop knew well that more remained 
to be done. Had she submitted to the church at any 
time before the assessors had agreed that she was guilty, 
he might not have been able to secure that agreement ; at 
any rate, there might have been indefinite delay. Now 
that her guilt was established,^ to secure her submission 

1 P. i. 396 et seq. 

2 P. i. 353, 355. The opinion of the chapter was dated May 4. 

3 See P. i. 349, 356. 

* The proceedings of the French tribunal differ so much from those 
of a modern English court that it is hard to find apt words to describe 
them. By their written opinions, the assessors and other persons cou< 



THE CONVICTION AND THE RECANTATION. 315 

was become a moral necessity, in order that she might be 
shown to the world a self-confessed impostor or a witch. 
That very submission which Cauchon had feared she 
might make only a few days before, he was now most 
anxious to force upon her. He knew that the task would 
not be easy, but he had one method as yet May 9 
untried. On May 9, a week after his last chari- ^^^^• 
table warning, Joan was brought into the donjon of the 
castle, where were placed the rack and other instruments 
of torture. 

Cauchon requested her to tell the truth in those mat- 
ters about which she had lied at her trial. He showed 
the instruments of torture set out before her, and pointed 
to the men who, as he said, were ready at his command 
to put her to the torment in order to bring her back into 
the way of truth and salvation. 

" In truth," Joan answered, " if you tear me limb from 
limb, and make my soul leave my body, I will tell you 
nothing but what I have told you already ; and, if I shall 
say anything else, hereafter I will always declare that you 
made me say it by force." She went on to tell them that 
she had asked her voices if she ought to submit to the 
church ; they had told her that if she wished our Lord 
to help her, she must leave all her deeds to Him. She 
knew well that our Lord had been the master of her 
deeds, and that the Enemy never had had power over 
them. She had asked her voices if she should be burnt, 
and they had told her to leave herself in God's hands 
and He would help her.^ The court had not determined 
to put her to actual torture, so she was taken back to her 
cell and left there in suspense. The wretch who should 
have tortured her testified afterwards that she answered 
so discreetly that the assessors were amazed.^ 

suited had declared their belief that Joan was guilty ; but the formal 
judgment of guilty was not yet rendered. 

1 P. i. 399 et seq. ^ P. iii. 185, Leparmentier. 



316 JOAN OF ARC. 

After three days, Cauclion summoned thirteen ^ asses* 
May 12, sors to his house and asked them if they thought 
^^^^- it advisable to put Joan to the torture. The 
first who gave his opinion, a canon of influence and im- 
portance,^ said that the trial had hitherto been so well 
managed that it ought not to be brought into disrepute. 
The large majority, including the vice-inquisitor, agreed 
to this decision. One of them observed that there was 
plenty of proof without torture, some thought that tor- 
ture was inexpedient for the time, some even wished that 
still another " charitable warning " should be adminis- 
tered. Three only voted for torture, — Morel, a lawyer ; 
Courcelles, a deputy of the University of Paris ; and the 
spy Loiseleur, the last saying that it seemed to him well 
to torture Joan for the healing of her soul. Eleven were 
on the side of mercy .^ How much their votes were gov- 
erned by pity for Joan, how much by other reasons, is 
not clear ; many assessors did pity her sincerely. Prob- 
ably Joan was given no notice of this vote, and so was 
left day after day to expect another call to the torture 
chamber. 

About a week later, the men deputed to visit the Uni- 
May 19 vci'sity of Paris returned to Rouen. They had 
i^^i- taken with them letters from the English royal 
council and from Cauchon,* and they had been received 
with much honor. They brought back a dutiful letter to 
Henry VI., and a fulsome address to the bishop, very 
different from the sharp complaints which the university 
had made to him when it believed him to be backward 
in prosecuting Joan. " May the Great Shepherd when 
He shall appear," so the last sentence ran, " deign to re- 

^ Besides Lemaitre, vicar of the inquisitor-general. 
2 Raoul Roussel. See Beaurepaire, Recherches, 90. 
^ P. i. 403. Seven of these had been present at Joan's refusal to 
testify. 
* P.i. 409. 



THE CONVICTION AND THE RECANTATION. 317 

ward your shepherdlike care with an immortal crown of 
glory." 1 

The substance of the university's message was con- 
tained in two elaborate opinions, rendered by the faculties 
of theology and of canon law and adopted by the whole 
university, concerning the guilt of Joan as manifested 
in the twelve articles. These opinions admitted neither 
doubt nor condition of any sort. Her visions were either 
lies manufactured by herself or the productions of Satan, 
Belial, and Behemoth. She was declared to be boastful, 
foolish, treacherous, deceitful, cruel, bloodthirsty, sedi- 
tious, blasphemous, undutif ul, rash, a fatalist, uncharitable, 
idolatrous, schismatical, apostate, and finally a heretic 
One argument of the faculty of canon law is worth re- 
peating. She lies, said the faculty, in saying that she is 
sent by God, for she shows no miracle or particular testi- 
mony of Scripture, like Moses, who turned his rod into 
a serpent and back again into a rod, or like John the 
Baptist, who said of himself, " I am the voice of one 
crying in the wilderness, as saith the prophet Isaiah." ^ 
If Joan had applied to herself some passage of Scripture, 
it seems that she might have passed for orthodox. 

Cauchou caused these decisive letters to be read in the 
presence of a great body of assessors, and then asked 
them one by one ^ what ought next to be done in the case. 
Many accepted the opinion of the university as to Joan's 
heresy, and advised that she be handed over at once to 
the secular arm. Many were willing to declare her a 
heretic without qualification, but would not condemn 
her to death without another " charitable warning." Sev- 
eral desired a " chai-itable warning " before pronouncing 
on her heresy.* In some way or other the " charitable 

1 P. i. 410. 

2 P. i. 418. 

3 P. i. 404, 422. 

* Such as Houdenc, Maugier, Grouchet, and others. P. i. 425, 427. 



S18 JOAN OF ARC. 

warning " must be given, and Cauchon appointed it for 
May 23. 

It was delivered to Joan in a chamber near her cell by 
May 23 Peter Maurice, a canon of Roueii.^ The substance 
1*31- of the twelve articles was rehearsed, together 
with the abusive comments of the university. There fol- 
lowed an address, reasonably temperate in language, but 
assuming throughout Joan's guilt. It closed as follows : 
" Therefore I warn, beseech, and exhort you, by the love 
you bear to the passion of your Creator, and the desire 
you have for the safety of your soul and body, that you 
correct the sins I have mentioned and return to the way 
of truth, by obeying the church and submitting to its 
judgment. By so doing you will save your soul, and you 
will, as I think, redeem your body from death. If you 
do not return, but persist, know that your soul will fall 
into damnation — and I fear your body will be destroyed. 
From all which may Jesus Christ deign to keep you." 
" I refer you," Joan answered, " to what I have done and 
said in the trial, and that I will uphold." Would she 
submit to the church, they asked her for the last time. 
" What I have said and done during the trial, I will stand 
by," she repeated. " If I were now at the judgment seat, 
and if I saw the torch burning, and the fagots laid, and the 
executioner ready to light the fire ; if I were in the fire, 
I v/ould say nothing else, and would stand by what I said 
at the trial, even to death." There was no question left 
to put. Cauchon asked Estivet and Joan if they had 
anything more to say, and, as they had not, he withdrew. 
In the margin of the record, opposite her last words, the 
scribe wrote his comment, " The proud answer of Joan." ^ 

The same day she was formally served with a summons 
to appear next morning and receive final sentence. Be- 

^ None of the assessors were present who were inclined to favor 
Joan. 

2 P. i. 437 et seq. 



THE CONVICTION AND THE RECANTATION. 319 

fore beginning the account of the last week of her life, 
with its many remarkable and sudden changes, it is neces- 
sary to consider her state of mind. 

Throughout her trial, as is made clear by her answers, 
she was sustained by the belief that God and his saints 
would by some means deliver her. This belief, indeed, 
was not constant and unwavering ; at one time she almost 
expected to die of fever, more than once she faced the 
possibility of death by fire. Nevertheless, her voices, in 
telling her to be of good courage and to answer boldly, 
had promised her God's help if she obeyed, and her cour- 
age had been kept up by her belief in this promise. She 
was no ascetic, no mediaeval saint, and she shrank from 
death with the fear and horror natural to a girl of nine- 
teen. As it became certain that she would be burnt if 
she persisted, in spite of the promise on which she had 
relied, the natural temptation to escape by submission 
must, at times, have been strengthened by a suspicion 
that the spirits who were abandoning her might come 
from the Devil. 

Had she been left to herself and to her brutal keepers, 
this suspicion probably would not have greatly troubled 
her, but the shrewdest means were used to increase it. 
More and more frequently learned doctors and eloquent 
friars visited her, most of them in all kindness trying to 
save her body and soul. It was infinitely harder for her 
to resist their arguments than if she had been a Hussite 
or a Waldensian heretic. Such a man would have re- 
ceived the condemnation of the whole Roman church, from 
the pope downward, with defiant scorn, and would abso- 
lutely have refused to submit to it at the outset of his 
trial ; he would have been quite unmoved, therefore, by 
the spiritual threats or the blandishments of his judges. 
Joan was no heretic, but a simple and devout Catholic. 
She believed in the supremacy of the pope, she recognized 
the authority of the church and her duty of submission. 



320 JOAN OF AEC. 

This duty had seemed at times incompatible with com. 
plete faith in her voices, but she always held it in theory, 
and tried hard to reconcile the two things in word and 
action. When her visitors urged submission, they ap- 
pealed not only to the weariness of chains and imprison- 
ment, the weakness of recent sickness, the fear of pain, 
the shrinking from insult and outrage, to her love of life 
and her dread of death, but also to the plainest teachings 
of her childhood. 

The appeal was skillfully made by some of the timid 
May 24 assessors, who had strained their consciences to 
^^•^i' condemn her, and hoped that she would escape 
after all. Cauchon approved, having already, as is likely, 
planned the manner of her death. Early on the morning 
of Thursday, May 24, the day appointed for her sentence 
and execution, several of the assessors visited her. They 
passed over all details of wrong-doing, and said nothing 
about most of the matters mentioned in the articles. A 
simple submission to the church, they told her, would be 
sufficient, and, as evidence of submission, a change of 
dress. To what they said Joan listened. ^ 

The cemetery of St. Ouen, just south of the magnifi- 
cent abbey church, was the place chosen for the ceremony 
of Joan's sentence. In the large open space two plat- 
forms had been built, one for the judges and the distin- 
guished spectators, the other for exhibiting Joan to the 
people.^ Early in the morning she was taken from her 
cell, put into a wagon, and driven to the place.^ Being 
led upon the platform, she found herself in the presence 
of a great crowd, assembled by the liveliest curiosity. 
Before her, on the other platform, beside Cauchon, the 
vice-inquisitor, and many of the assessors whom she had 
seen at her trial, were Cardinal Beaufort, the great-uncle 

^ P. ii. 20, Beaupere. See P. iii. 60, Courcelles. 

2 P. iii. 54, Bp. of Noyon ; 61, Courcelles; 122, Maey. 

» P. ii. 351, La Pierre. 



THE CONVICTION AND THE RECANTATION. 321 

of Henry VI., Louis of Luxemburg, bishop of Th^rouanne, 
Henry's cliancellor in France, the English bishop of Nor- 
wich and the French bishop of Noyon, the great Norman 
abbots of Mont St. Michel and of Abelard's monastery 
of Bee. Warwick and the English captains, also, were in 
the audience, with English soldiers, citizens of Rouen, and 
strangers passing through the town. 

The church's sentence of condemnation was usually pre- 
ceded by a sermon, which exhorted the sinner to repent- 
ance and improved his example as a warning to the mul- 
titude. The preacher at St. Ouen was William Erard. 
According to his servant, he had no liking for the duty, 
and wished himself in Flanders.^ He did not dare to re- 
fuse, however, and, having undertaken the task, he spoke 
with much vehemence from the text, " The branch cannot 
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine." In order 
to please his English hearers, he reviled Charles VII. for 
trusting in a witch and seeking to recover his kingdom by 
her aid. Sitting near him upon the same platform, Joan 
had listened in silence to his abuse of herself, but at this 
remark she interrupted Erard, and told him not to speak 
of her king, inasmuch as he was a good Christian. " Si- 
lence her," cried the angry preacher .^ 

The sermon over, Erard turned to her, and in milder 
phrase told her that inasmuch as she had done some 
things which could not be defended, the judges required 
her to submit her words and deeds to mother church. His 
demand was not merely formal ; there were other priests 
on the platform, and they crowded about her, begging her 
to submit. It was submission or death, they told her ; the 
executioner with his cart was waiting close by to carry 
her to the stake.^ While Erard was preaching, Joan's 
voices had told her to answer him boldly,^ and she had 

1 P. iii. 113. 

2 P, ii. 15, 344, Manchon ; 367, Ladvenu ; iii. 54, Bp. of Noyon. 
8 P. iii. 65, Monnet ; 147, 149, Manchon. 

* P. i. 466, J.'s test. 



322 JOAN OF ABO. 

done so, but at the thought of being burnt within an hour 
she wavered for the first time. The priest said nothing 
to her now about the petty matters with which they had 
harassed her at the trial. They asked only submission 
to the church, and that, as she knew, priests were accus- 
tomed to ask. Submission to the church, it seemed, could 
hardly be wrong. 

Once more her voices prevailed. " I will answer you," 
she said. " Let my deeds and words be sent to Rome to 
our holy father the pope, to whom, and to God, first of all, 
I trust myself. As for the words and deeds I have done, 
I have done them by the command of God." Doubt had 
entered her mind, however, and it found characteristic ex- 
pression. " I hold no one responsible for my acts," she 
went on, " neither my king nor any one else, and, if there 
is any fault, it is mine and not another's." She was still 
willing to stake her own salvation on the truth of her 
voices, but not the reputation of her king. 

Would she recant those things which had been found 
blameworthy by the churchmen, they asked her. " I 
leave all to God and to our holy father the pope," she 
answered. They told her that the pope was far away, and 
that the bishops were judges, each in his own diocese ; 
still she would not yield. The solemn warning was re- 
peated a second time and a third, while the priests labored 
with her, asking only submission.^ 

To the English soldiers the delay seemed long, and 
there were murmurs in the crowd. Some angrily called 
on Cauchon to pronounce sentence, others threatened the 
priests who surrounded Joan. Still the bishop paused, 
determined to accomplish his purpose ; but Joan did not 
yield. At last he arose and began reluctantly to read 
the sentence of condemnation which delivered Joan to 
the secular arm, that is, to death.^ The priests, however, 
did not give over their efforts, some acting in good faith, 

1 P. i. 444 et seq. » P. i. 446. 



THE CONVICTION AND THE RECANTATION. 323 

others under Cauchon's orders. " Joan, do as you are 
told ; do you want to make us kill you ? Believe me, you 
may be saved if you wish. Change your dress, and do as 
you are bidden, otherwise you will be put to death. If 
you do what I tell you, you will be saved ; you shall be 
well off, and come to no harm ; you shall be delivered up 
to the church." A paper was thrust into her hands ; she 
hesitated, they almost forced her to sign it. In the con- 
fusion she said something which was taken for submission, 
and they begged Cauchon to stop. He did so, willingly 
enough, but the tumult increased ; some called Cauchon 
a traitor, and stones were thrown at Joan. 

How she signed the abjuration — indeed, what abjura- 
tion she signed — cannot be known with certainty. The 
document which appears in the report of the trial she 
never signed with knowledge of its contents. She could 
not read ; in the great crowd of shouting people, she could 
hardly have heard the abjuration, even if it was read to 
her. Some of the lookers-on thought that she made her 
mark upon a writing of a few lines, and that a longer 
document was forged for official use ; according to the 
recollection of others, she signed a document wliich was 
never explained to her. However that may be, — and Cau- 
chon was quite capable of forgery, — she certainly believed 
that she promised simply to submit to the church and to 
put on women's dress, leaving other matters to be settled 
afterwards. " You take great pains to persuade me," she 
said to the priests, — with a smile on her lips, as the by- 
standers thought. Then she put her mark on something.^ 

1 P. i. 446 et seq. ; ii. 17, 331, Massieu ; 338, Desert ; iii. 52, De la 
Chambre ; 54, Bp. of Noyon ; 61, Courcelles ; 64, Monnet ; 90, Mar- 
eel ; 122, Macy ; 132, Miget ; 146, Manchon ; 156, Massieu ; 194, 
Moreau ; 197, Taquel. In this mass of evidence there are some dis- 
crepancies, but not more important than is natural under the circum- 
stances. 

In his Aperf:tis nouveaux, p. 133 et seq., M. Quicherat maintains 
that Cauchon was incapable of forging Joan's abjuration, or of sub- 



324 JOAN OF ABC. 

/ 

The abjuration signed, Cauchon pronounced the sen- 
tence, which he had made ready in the hope of her sub- 
mission.^ It was in Latin, and Joan could not have un- 
derstood it, even if the noise about her and her distress of 
mind had allowed her to hear it. After setting forth her 
crimes, it showed that she had abjured them, and with a 
contrite heart had returned to the bosom of the church ; 
wherefore Cauchon released her from excommunication. 
For salutary penance, he sentenced her to perpetual ira- 

stituting another document for the one actually signed. Herein it 
seems to me that M. Quicherat is carried too far bj"^ his proper reac- 
tion against the exaggerated charges of irregularity made against the 
bishop by most authors. Cauchon did not stick at irregularities when 
they were necessary, as witness the depositions concerning Joan's last 
morning, which Manchon refused to attest, and which Cauchon yet 
introduced into the papers of the trial. M. Quicherat disregards the 
testimony given at the second trial concerning the abjuration, alleg- 
ing that it was biased in favor of Joan. Doubtless this is true, but 
its amount is too considerable and its agreement too marked to be 
treated lightly, especially as some of it comes from witnesses who did 
not hesitate to speak their minds. M. Quicherat treats the testimony 
of Joan herself as of controlling force, and therein he seems to me 
quite right. He says that she did not deny having abjured her voices, 
but asserted merely that she did not so understand the document 
she signed ; which, I confess, seems to me a civil way of saying the 
same thing. M. Quicherat adds that she reproached herself with 
having been guilty of sin in order to save her life. This is true ; but 
because she admitted weakness in changing her dress and in her gen- 
eral promise of submission, it does not follow that she admitted all 
other possible weaknesses in addition. The sin of denying her voices 
she seems to me to have asserted that she did not commit. I think 
it reasonably clear, therefore, that there was either forgery, substitu- 
tion, or total and probably intentional misunderstanding. Boisguil- 
laume said that the abjuration was read to Joan, but that she did not 
understand it. Moreau could not remember anything about it, except 
a mention of treason, which is not to be found in the existing abjura- 
tion. Taquel testified that Massieu read an abjuration of six lines or 
thereabouts. Certainly these statements furnish no particular evi- 
dence that Joan intelligently signed an abjuration containing con- 
siderably over three hundred words. See P. iii. 156, 164, 194, 197. 
1 P. i. 461 ; iii. 146. 



THE CONVICTION AND THE RECANTATION. 325 

prisonment on the bread of adversity and the water of 
affliction, in order that she might repent her sins, and 
commit no more deeds to be repented of.^ As she was 
led away to her perpetual prison, there was question what 
that prison should be. Joan seems to have asked, as was 
reasonable, that, having been condemned }ij the church, 
she should be kept in the church's prison. Many, perhaps 
most, of the assessors would have liked to grant her 
request, but their opinion was not asked.^ " Lead her to 
the place from which you took her," said the bishop ; and 
they led her back to her old cell,^ letting her hope, it 
may be, that she was soon to be removed. There, in the 
same afternoon, she was visited by the vice-inquisitor, 
and, after hearing a little homily on the duty of persisting 
in her submission, she put on women's clothes and allowed 
her hair to be cut and arranged so that she no longer 
wore it man-fashion.* 

Some of the English were so angry with Cauchon for 
favoring Joan that he appealed to the cardinal for pro- 
tection.^ He was entitled to it. He had spared Joan's 
life for the moment, indeed, but she herseK had destroyed 
her own reputation, as no power of his could have de- 
stroyed it. To take her life at any time was a matter 
comparatively easy. vWhen Warwick complained to the 
bishop and those with him, saying that the king would be 
displeased at Joan's escape, one of them answered, " Do 
not vex yourself, my lord; we shall soon have her again." ^ 

1 P. i. 450. 

2 P. iii. 59, Coureelles. 

s P. ii. 14, Manchon ; ii. 18, iii. 157, Massieu ; iii. 175, Leffivre. 

* P. i. 452. 

8 P. ii. 355, iii. 184, Marguerie ; iii. 55, Bp. of NoyoH. 

6 P. ii. 376, Fave. 



CHAPTER XXrV. 

THE RELAPSE AND THE EXECUTION. 

To understand that which took place in the last week 
May 24- of Joan's life, it is necessary to know what was 
27, 1431. ^]^g feeling- of the English, of Cauchon, and of 
Joan herself, after she had signed her abjuration and had 
put on woman's dress. 

■ All Englishmen in Rouen except Warwick and a few 
other leaders were furious. They were sure that they 
had been betrayed. Their greatest enemy, who had cost 
them so dear, in men, in territory, and in money paid to 
buy her, had cheated their revenge, i She had been con- 
demned to perpetual imprisonment, indeed, but they had 
wished and expected her death. This she had escaped, 
miserable witch though she was, by some legal technical- 
ity, or, as seemed more likely, by the connivance of her 
treacherous countrymen, whom the English had been 
foolish enough to make her judges. The hati-ed which 
Englishmen had naturally felt for Joan before her cap- 
ture was little affected by her testimony or by her bear- 
ing at her trial. Most of them had hardly seen her ; 
few of them could f idly understand what she said. The 
angry, savage soldiers were ready to vent their wrath on 
any Frenchman, especially if he were a Frenchman con- 
nected with Cauchon's tribunal.^ 

To Cauchon, doubtless, this turbulence of the English 
seemed unreasonable,^ for he knew that his craft was 

1 See P. ii. 357, Grouehet ; 376, Fave. 

* P. ii. 322, Bouchier ; 338, Desert ; 355, Marguerie ; ii. 361, iii. 
130, Miget ; iii. 55, Bp. of Noyon ; 90, Marcel ; 147, Manchon. 



THE RELAPSE AND THE EXECUTION. 327 

serving their cause more effectually than their own blind 
rage. His plan had been formed for weeks, perhaps for 
months, and so far he had succeeded in carrying it out. 
He might easily have killed Joan, either after a hasty trial 
or by poison or ill usage in prison ; and thus have made 
her a martyr. Instead of doing so, he had made her 
discredit herself by recanting her errors and changing 
her dress. Having destroyed her marvelous reputation, 
wherein lay her real strength, he prepared to complete 
his work by putting to death with all due formality the 
poor self-convicted witch, half impostor, half deluded by 
the Devil, who would soon revoke her recantation and so 
destroy her last chance of life. 

After the churchmen had left her on Thursday after- 
noon, Joan sat in her cell, with the cut of her hair changed 
and in woman's dress, but chained and guarded as usual,^ 
kept just as she had been kept since she reached Rouen. 
In that cell, in those chains, and with like soldiers for 
her keepers, she was condemned to pass the rest of her 
life. By her abjuration she had gained nothing. She 
had signed the paper and had changed her dress in order 
to escape from the custody of brutal soldiers into that 
of decent priests, and in order to receive the sacrament. 
The sacrament had not been given her, the priests ap- 
parently had left her forever, and by her change of dress 
she had exposed herself more than before to the lust of 
her keepers. 

Her voices spoke to her. For six years they had been 
her constant comfort. Without them, as she said, she 
would have died in prison, and, except for the folly of a 
moment at Beaurevoir, a fault easily forgiven, she had 
always obeyed them. That morning, even if she had not 
actually denied them, yet she had openly shown her dis- 
trust of them, and at the last moment had failed to an- 
swer her judges boldly for fear of death. 
1 P. ii. 18, Massieu. 



328 JOAN OF ARC. 

To escape the terrible reproach of lier voices, and in 
the hope of regaining the peace of mind she had lost, she 
confessed her shame and cowardice to her keepers,^ prob- 
ably because her remorse would not let her be quiet, and 
they were the only persons to whom she could speak. 
They paid little attention to her words ; the plan formed 
to entrap her was intended to secure more material proof 
of her relapse. What she endured on Friday and Satur- 
day cannot be precisely known, — how carefully her guards 
and others in the plot stopped at threats, and how far 
they went in actual violence and outrage. ~ The natural 
exasperation of the English soldiers needed no urging ; in 
woman's dress she was treated far worse than when she 
was dressed as a man.^ Doubtless her sufferino:s seemed 
to her the just punishment of her cowardice. 

In her agony she may have cried out for the clothes 
she used to wear; at any rate, they were deliberately 
placed where she could reach them. According to one 
story, the guards took away the ncAv dress while she was 
asleep, and refused to give it back ; ^ but such an act would 
have provided her with legal justification for the change, 
and therefore would hardly have been allowed. Within 

1 P. i. 462. 

2 Ladvenu is reported to have testified that Joan told him that 
Hn English nobleman had violated her. P. ii. 8. Later he testified 
that she told him the Englishman had attempted it. P. ii. 365 ; 
iii. 168. The second story corresponds better with the testimony of 
other witnesses. See P. ii. 5, 305, La Pierre ; 300, Manchon ; 306, 
Cusquel ; P. iii. 149, Manchon ; 201, Daron. 

^ This is the account given by the sergeant Massieu. P. ii. 18, 
333 ; iii. 157. The reasons given in the text seem to me conclusive, 
inasmuch as there is no reason why Joan herself should not have 
told the story to the judges if it had been true. Of course, the 
man's dress was put within her reach. See P. ii. 305, La Pierre ; 
iii. 55, Bp. of Noyon ; 113, Lenozole. The official report makes 
Joan say that she had put on the dress without compulsion, and 
Manchon would hardly have attested a falsehood on this point. P. 
i. 455. 



THE RELAPSE AND THE EXECUTION. 329 

two days she had put on again her old tunic and cloak 
and leggings.^ 

News of what she had done was brought to Cauchon. 
Thus far his plan had succeeded perfectly, and without 
undue haste he pursued it to the end. On the afternoon 
of Trinity Sunday he directed Beaupere, a delegate of 
the University of Paris and one of Joan's examiners, to 
visit her in her cell. He was commanded to admonish 
Joan to persist in her submission, and doubtless he was 
to certify her relapse, if he should find that she had re- 
turned to her former evil ways.^ 

The prison was locked and the jailer could not be found. 
As Beaupere waited in the court-yard of the castle with 
the assessors who accompanied him, the English soldiers 
gathered about them, calling them false traitor Arma- 
gnacs. The churchmen were timid. Beaupere could not 
understand English, and asked Midi, one of his colleagues, 
what the soldiers wanted. Midi reported that the men 
said it would be a good job to throw them both into the 
river. At this all took fright and rushed out across the 
drawbridge into the town, followed by the soldiers shout- 
ing and brandishing their swords. Cauchon had not 
been able to take the whole English garrison into his 
secret.^ 

On the next day, Monday, May 28, four days after 
the recantation, Cauchon himself, with the vice- May 28 
inquisitor, several assessors, and the notaries, went ■^■^"^^• 
to Joan's cell in order to establish formally the fact of her 
relapse. This time the English soldiers were kept under 
control, and the journey was made in safety.* They 
found Joan in her old dress, her face stained with tears 
and so marked and disfigured that one assessor took pity 
on her.^ The kindly Dominican knew nothing of her re- 

1 See P. i. 454, 462. 2 p. ii. 21, Beaupere. 

^ P. ii. 14, Manchon ; 21, Beaupere. * P. ii. 14, Manchon. 

^ P. ii. 5, La Pierre. 



330 JOAN OF ARC. 

morse and the reproach of her voices, and he laid all her 
distress to the outrages of her keepers. 

Cauchon proceeded at once to business, and asked when 
and why she had put on again the dress of a man. For 
a little while, according to the official report, Joan tried 
to evade an answer, saying that she had acted of her own 
free will, that she preferred man's dress, that she did not 
think she had sworn never to wear it again. Apparently 
she was shamefaced, as she had been before, but at last 
she was forced to answer plainly. While living among 
men, she said, it was more fitting and decent for her to 
wear a man's dress than a woman's, and she added that 
they had not kept their promises to her, namely, that she 
should receive the sacrament and have her irons knocked 
off. Being further questioned, she answered that she 
would rather die than be kept in chains, and that, if they 
would commit her to a proper prison, she would dress as 
they pleased. 1 

From her dress Cauchon passed to her voices. He had 
heard, so he told her, that she now held to the deceitful 
and pretended visions which she had just abjured, and 
he asked her if, since last Thursday, she liad heard her 
voices. She answered yes. 

What had they said to her, pursued Cauchon. God 
had bidden St. Catherine and St. Margaret tell her, Joan 
answered, what a great shame was the treason ^ to which 
she had consented in forswearing and recanting to save 
her life. Her voices warned her that she was damning 
herself to save her life. Up to last Thursday they had 
told her what to do, and she had done it. Even when she 
was on the scaffold in face of the people, they had told 
her to answer Erard boldly. " He was a lying preacher," 
she continued, "• and charged me with many things which 
I had not done. If I should say that God did not send 
me, I should damn myself, for it is true that God did 
^ P. i. 455. 2 " La grande piti^ de la trayson." 



THE RELAPSE AND THE EXECUTION. 331 

send me. Since last Thursday my voices have been tell- 
ing me that I did great wrong in confessing that what I 
had done was not well done. Whatever I said was said 
from fear of the fire." ^ 

" Do you believe that your voices are those of St. Cath- 
erine and St. Margaret?" asked Cauchon. "Yes," Joan 
answered, " theirs and God's." ^ 

Opposite one of Joan's replies, the scribe wrote on the 
margin of the page the words "fatal answer." Cauchon 
had heard enough to send her to the stake, but he contin- 
ued his examination, seeing, perhaps, that she was worn 
out, and hoping that in her distress she had lost some of 
her usual keenness. He told her that when she stood on 
the scaffold, before the judges and the people, she had 
confessed that her story about St. Catherine and St. Mar- 
garet was a lying boast. Joan replied that she did not 
understand that she had confessed anything of the sort. 
She did not understand that she had denied that the 
voices were those of St. Catherine and St. Margaret ; 
whatever she had said, she had said through fear of the 
fire. She would rather do penance once, by dying, than 
suffer longer in prison ; she had really done nothing 
against God or the Christian faith, whatever she might 
have said in her recantation ; and, as to the writing she 
had signed, she did not comprehend it. She had in- 
tended to admit nothing, except with the proviso that it 
should so please God. ' If the judges wished, she would 
again put on woman's dress, but she would do nothing 
more. Cauchon thereupon withdrew ; ^ in leaving the cas- 
tle, he laughed and told the English to make themselves 
quite easy, as the job was done.* Though her fate was 
settled, Joan was left in suspense for thirty-six hours or 
more, partly, perhaps, in mere neglect, partly that she 
might yield the more easily at the last. 

1 P. i. 456, 457. 2 p, i. 457, 

8 P. i. 457 et seq. * P. ii. 5, La Pierre ; 8, Ladvenu. 



332 JOAN OF ARC. 

The day after his visit to her cell, on Tuesday, May 29, 
May 29, Cauchon held the last sitting of his court. To 
1431. some forty assessors he rehearsed the history of 
Joan's abjuration and relapse, reading the minutes of her 
answers made on the preceding day. He then asked the 
assessors to advise him what he should do. 

There was but one thing to be done, and the assessors, 
with more or less reluctance, voted to do it. Some with 
bald directness, some in gentler phrase, voted that Joan 
was a relapsed heretic, and should be delivered to the lay 
tribunal for punishment.^ One man only, Peter, prior 
of Longueville Giffard, wished to give her another chance 
to recant. The sergeant was ordered to bring her to the 
place of execution at eight o'clock on the next morning.^ 

Hitherto Cauchon's plans had succeeded. Throughout 
her trial Joan had been obstinate, and her obstinacy had 
insured her conviction. At sight of the fire her obstinacy 
had given way and she had seemed to confess herself a 
witch, thus admitting what Cauchon had found it so hard 
to prove. After she had been taken back to her cell, 
her obstinacy had reappeared and caused her relapse, thus 
condemning her irrevocably to death. But one thing was 
left for Cauchon to do, namely, to overcome her obsti- 
nacy a second time and secure another recantation, which 
would send her to the stake confessing the justice of her 
punishment. 

To seem to do this was not hard. No one could visit 
Joan's cell except by Cauchon's permission, and so he 

^ " Relinquenda justitise secvilari." This was equivalent, of course, 
to a judgment of death by burning, — the sentence always passed by 
the lay tribunal upon persons delivered to it by the ecclesiastical tri- 
bunal. The ecclesiastical tribunal could not shed blood, and so could 
not of itself execute a capital sentence. 

2 P. i. 459 et seq. The second assessor to vote, the abbot of Fdcamp, 
•while voting that Joan should be delivered to the lay tribunal, voted 
also that the minutes of her relapse should be read to her. Many 
other assessors adopted his opinion, yet the minutes were not read. 



THE RELAPSE AND THE EXECUTION. 333 

could tell an uncontradicted story of what went on there. 
The assessors who pitied Joan would wish to believe that 
she died penitent, and, in all kindness, would give to her 
words a meaning which allowed her a last chance of 
eternal salvation. In one matter Joan herself would help 
the bishop's plan; for months she had been demanding 
the Eucharist, and, with death only a few hours distant, 
she was sure to ask it more earnestly than ever. It could 
be given, of course, only to a contrite penitent, and Joan's 
reception of it would seem proof of her contrition for the 
great sin of which she was accused. Cauchon knew, 
moreover, that the fearful strain of the past week had 
weakened Joan more than months of imprisonment. By 
the sudden announcement that she was to be burned in a 
few hours, he expected to break her down completely. 

A week later, when all was over, he assembled the 
priests who saw her in her cell on the last morning of her 
life, and caused their statements of what had happened 
there to be written down, in order to show that she had 
again abjured her errors. This irregular evidence the 
official notary would not attest, though ordered to do so 
by Cauchon ; ^ some of it is manifestly false, some of it was 
afterwards contradicted by the witnesses themselves. Un- 
trustworthy as it is in important particulars, yet the true 
story of the morning may be gathered from it, when it 
has been corrected by other testimony and by the proba- 
bilities of the case. Allowance must be made, also, for 
the pressure applied to the witnesses by Cauchon, and for 
their natural bias. 

Soon after daylight on "Wednesday morning there went 
to Joan's cell Peter Maurice, a respectable priest. May 30, 
and the spy Loiseleur, in whose friendship she ^^''^^• 
still believed.^ They warned her that her end was 

^ P. ii. 14, Manchon. Midi and Courcelles were paid to June 10 
inclusive ; Maurice to June 7. P. v. 208. 

2 Maurice and Loiseleur were the first in the cell. P. i. 481, Tout- 
mouilld ; 484, Loiseleur. See ii. 343. 



334 JOAN OF AEC. 

near, and begged her to speak the truth, particularly 
about the angel who, as she said, had brought the crown 
to Charles. In the face of death Joan would no longer 
play upon words ; without more ado, she told them the 
exact truth, acknowledging that she was the angel, and 
that the crown she had brought was the promise of coro- 
nation fulfilled at Rheims.^ 

Maurice then asked about the saints she had seen and 
the voices she had heard, hoping that she would confess 
that they, too, were only fictions or allegories. This was 
not true, and Joan stoutly affirmed that both visions and 
voices were real. Again and again Maurice repeated his 
question in varying form. Joan said that she often heard 
her voices at Compline, when the church bells rang, and 
Maurice suggested that church bells sometimes sound in 
men's ears like human voices. Joan persisted that she 
had really heard the voices. Maurice then told her that 
they must be the voices of evil spirits, intending thus to 
shake her belief, but she answered simply, " Be they good 
spirits or bad, they did really appear to me." From this 
she could not be shaken.^ 

While Maurice and Loiseleur were laboring with her, 
two Dominicans joined them, Martin Ladvenu and John 
Toutmouille.^ The former was especially commissioned 
by Cauchon to tell Joan that, within two or three hours, 
she was to be burnt at the stake. Ladvenu was a man of 
no great force, easily induced to say and to do what he 
was told, but he pitied Joan sincerely.* As gently as he 
could he gave her his message. To Joan it came as a 
shock. She had spoken of death, doubtless she had ex- 

^ P. i. 480, Maurice ; 484, Loiseleur. 

^ P. i. 480, 481. As to the angels, Maurice says she told him that 
they appeared as a multitude of very small things. So, also, Ladvenu 
and Toutmouilld. Evidently this did not apply to the voices or the 
saints. 

« P. ii. 3, Toutmouilld. 

* He had been in Rouen throughout the triaL 



THE RELAPSE AND THE EXECUTION. 335 

pectecl to die, but she had a sanguine temper and had 
not quite given up the hope of deliverance. At first 
the girl could not contain herself, and broke down before 
the four priests. It was cruel, she told them, and she had 
rather be beheaded seven times over than burnt. Had she 
been guarded by churchmen, and not by her enemies, this 
would not have happened, and she appealed to God, the 
great judge, against the wrong that had been done her.^ 
In her distress Maurice thought that another appeal might 
move her, and he pointed out that her voices must be those 
of lying spirits, since, in promising her deliverance, they 
had deceived her. This horrible thought had been pres- 
ent to her mind for days ; she could not be sure that 
Maurice was wrong, and he persuaded her to say that she 
had been deceived.^ Probably she meant to admit only 
that she had misunderstood her voices, but the churchmen 
took her to mean that the voices had betrayed her. In 
her agony she hardly knew what she was saying or what 
she dared to believe ; she was too simple and devout a 
Catholic utterly to disregard the learned priests about 
her, as she might have done if she had been a stubborn 
heretic. " Master Peter," she asked Maurice, " where 
shall I be to-night?" "Do you not have good hope in 
God?" said the well meaning canon. With returning 
confidence, Joan answered that she had good hoi3e, and 
that, with God's help, she would be in paradise.^ 

Cauchon himself came to the prison with several at- 
tending assessors. Joan knew that he, at any rate, was 
her enemy, and she spoke to him boldly. " Bishop, I die 
by your act." This the crafty bishop did not intend to 
acknowledge. " Ah, be patient, Joan," he said. " You die 
because you have not done what you promised, and be- 

1 P. ii. 3, Toutmouill^. 
a P. i, 478, Ladvenu. 

* P. iii. 191, Riquier. Maurice Is reported to have been sorry at 
Joan's relapse. P. iii. 164, Boisguillaume. 



336 JOAN or ARC. 

cause you have returned to your old sin." " If you had 
put me into the prisons of the church, and had left me 
in the hands of proper churchly keepers," said the poor 
girl, " this would not have happened ; therefore I appeal 
against you to God." ^ 

Cauchon saw her agony, and, dissatisfied with the efforts 
of Maurice, himself attempted to bring her to submission. 
" Listen, Joan," he began ; " you always told us that your 
voices promised you that you should be delivered; you 
see how they have deserted you. Now tell us the truth." 
Again Joan was forced to admit that she had been de- 
ceived. Cauchon triumphantly declared that she must 
understand that voices like hers could not be those of 
good spirits, nor could they come from God ; if they had 
come from Him, they could neither deceive her nor lie. 
To this Joan made no answer, and they could get nothing 
more out of her, except rather vague professions of de- 
votion to the church and of willingness to submit to it.^ 

1 P. ii. 3, Toutmouill^. 

2 P. i. 481, Toutmouill^ ; 483, Courcelles. The testimony of the 
seven witnesses examined on June 7 should be studied carefully, and, 
when so studied, does not offer very many serious difficulties. That of 
Loiseleur is plainly untruthful, dictated solely by a desire to make out 
Cauchon's case, and to show that, at the moment of her death, Joan 
gave the lie to her whole past life. His statements that she asked him 
to remind her to confess her sins to the people, and that she begged 
pardon of the English and Burgundians, are absurd. The anxiety of 
Le Camus to please Cauchon evidently led him into considerable 
exaggeration, if not into downright falsehood. All those present, 
however, testified that Joan admitted that she had been deceived. 
Doubtless it was Cauchon's intention that they should say this, but 
they would hardly have done so unless Joan had admitted, at the 
least, that she had been mistaken. 

Venderes, Ladvenu, Loiseleur, Maurice, and Courcelles make Joan 
say that she had been deceived, almost in the same words. Tout- 
mouill^ and Le Camus make her say that the voices had deceived 
her, — a phrase which she is less likely to have used. Such a phrase, 
however, may have escaped her in her terrible distress. It is to be 
observed that Toutmouill^ makes her say it in reply to a question by 



THE RELAPSE AND THE EXECUTION. 337 

Cauchon went away with most of his assessors to prepare 
for the execution. Ladvenu stayed behind, having been 
directed to give Joan all needful ghostly advice. 

She had now no hope of escape, and she gave herself at 

Cauchon. Courcelles, the witness who stood least in awe of Cauchon, 
testifying after Toutmouill^, and probably after having heard him, 
seems to correct his testimony by saying that, according to his own 
recollection, Joan said, " I see that I have been deceived." Le Camus 
testified that, at the time Ladvenu was administering the Eucharist, 
Joan confessed that her voices had deceived her, and that she would 
put faith in them no longer. Ladvenu, without mentioning the occa- 
sion, makes her say something to the same effect, but less specific. 
At the rehabilitation, however, he testified that Joan always main- 
tained that her voices came from God. So, also, Manchon, P. iii. 
150. It is pretty clear that both Le Camus and Ladvenu stretched 
their recollections severely. Perhaps Ladvenu told Joan that her 
voices were not worthy of belief, and she did not contradict him. See 
P. i. 483, Le Camus. 

Le Camus makes Joan admit in the presence of the bishop that her 
voices were evil. Courcelles says that Cauchon told her that they 
were evil, but gives no reply. Ladvenu, Maurice, and Toutmouill^ 
make her leave the matter more or less vaguely to the church or to 
the churchmen, while Maurice quotes her words, " Be they good spirits 
or bad, they did appear to me." 

According to Ladvenu, Maurice, and Toutmouilld, she said some- 
thing about the vision being in the similitude of a great number of 
very small things. As they did not understand her meaning, appar- 
ently, it is difficult for us to do so. 

Joan doubtless said something which could be taken as a recogni- 
tion of the authority of the church, for Ladvenu so testified, even at 
the rehabilitation. See P. ii. 365 ; iii. 167. Her language about this 
matter was probably pretty vague, like that she so often used at her 
trial. It is to be noted that the questions asked of the witnesses at 
the second trial were intended to elicit an answer that Joan had sub- 
mitted to the church. See ii. 293, articles ix., xi. ; ii. 311, articles 
xiv., xvii., xxiii. 

Taking all the testimony together, two things appear plainly : 
Joan's great distress, and the desire of the witnesses to tell a story 
agreeable to Cauchon. It should be observed that Courcelles, the 
most reserved of the witnesses of June 7 in testifying against Joan, 
was at the rehabilitation almost the most reserved in testifying in 
her favor. This makes his testimony doubly valuable. I see no 



338 JOAN OF ARC. 

once to devout preparation for death, confessing her sins 
to Ladvenu, and meekly receiving from him the sacrament 
of penance.^ She begged earnestly for the Eucharist, and 
Ladvenu sent the sergeant Massieu to Cauchon, asking for 
instructions. Cauchon gave his permission readily ; for 
the reasons already mentioned, he had always intended to 
do S0.2 The host was brought in state with litany and 
candles through the castle yard, so that all by-standers 
might know how Joan had again recanted her errors 
and acknowledged her sins.^ By the time the cell was 
reached, however, all need of pomp had ceased, for want 
of spectators, and the host was delivered to Ladvenu in a 
manner so slovenly, without candle, surplice, or stole, that 
the outraged priest would not administer the sacrament 
until decent furnishing was provided.* Joan had already 
put on woman's dress ; months before, she had asked her 
judges that it might be given her when she came to be 
executed.^ In it she received the Eucharist for the first 
time at Rouen. 

She had been cited to appear before the court at eight 
o'clock, and she was arrayed for the procession through 
the streets. They put upon her a long black robe, such 
as those condemned by the Inquisition used to wear, and 
on her head a mitre with these words written, " Heretic, 
relapsed, apostate, idolater." ^ Guarded by several score 
of English soldiers, accompanied by the sergeant and by 
Ladvenu, she was led from the castle to the Old Market, a 

reason to suppose that the testimony taken June 7 was altered in the 
recording. Manchon's objection to attesting it was its irregularity, 
not its incorrectness. 

1 P. i. 482, Le Camus ; ii. 308, Ladvenu. 

2 P. iii. 158, Massieu. See iii. 149. 
^ P. iii. 114, Lenozoles. 

4 P. ii. 19, 334, Massieu. 

o P. i. 176. See P. iii. 159 ; ii. 334. 

* P. iv. 459, Fauquemberque. See iv. 480, note 3. 



THE RELAPSE AND THE EXECUTION. 339 

few hundred yards distant, in the heart of Rouen.^ There 
had been erected three platforms or scaft'olds, one for the 
court, one for the distinguished spectators, and one on 
which was set up the stake.^ The market-place was filled 
with a great crowd, English soldiers, townspeople, and 
peasants who had flocked in from the country to see the 
show. Apparently the execution had been advertised at 
least a day beforehand.^ 

About nine o'clock Joan reached the Old Market, and 
was brought upon the platform near the Church of St. 
Saviour. According to custom, there was a sermon, 
preached by Nicholas Midi, a member of the University 
of Paris and a canon of Rouen. His text was from 
Corinthians, " If one member suffer, all the members suf- 
fer with it." * Joan sat quiet throughout the discourse, 
while the crowd had its fill of gazing at the famous 
witch. When Midi had finished, Cauchon for the last 
time warned Joan to look well to the safety of her soul, 
and advised her to heed especially the counsel of the two 
Dominican friars, Ladvenu and Isambard of La Pierre, 
appointed to stay by her till her death. He then read 
the final sentence. This set forth that it was fitting to 
separate heretics from the company of the righteous, lest 
the deadly poison which transformed the heretic into a 
limb of Satan should spread through the other members 
of the mystic body of Christ. Joan had previously been 
found guilty of the sin of schism, idolatry, and witchcraft, 
so the sentence declared, and, as now clearly appeared, 
she had never truly repented of these sins, but had re- 
turned to her evil ways, like a dog to his vomit. There- 

^ P. ii. 14, Manchon ; 19, Massieu ; iii. 173, Houppeville ; Beau- 
repaire, Memoire sur le lien du supplice de J.; Wallon, ^d. illust., 349. 

2 P. iii. 55, Bp. of Noyon. 

3 P. iv. 354, Basin. 

* P. i. 470 ; ii. 14, Mancbon ; 19, Massieu ; Beaurepaire, Notes sur 
iesjuges, 38. 



340 JOAN OF ARC. 

fore the judges declared her excommunicated and cut off 
from the unity of the church, like a rotten member, and 
they delivered her over to the power of the state. ^ 

The sermon and the rest of the ceremony had taken 
a considerable time, and some of the English soldiers 
became impatient.^ The power of the state, represented 
by the bailiff of Rouen,^ should have passed sentence of 
death, but in the confusion this formality was omitted, 
or was passed over so hastily that those who stood close 
by heard nothing of it.^ Joan was brought down from 
the judge's platform, delivered at once to the executioner, 
and taken to the scaffold. As she went, she begged the 
priests to say masses for her soul, and again she declared 
that for what she had done, good or bad, she alone would 
answer, and that her king was not to blame. With her 
old confidence, she cried, " Ah, Rouen, I greatly fear that 
you will have to suffer for my death." ^ 

Before the scaffold a sign was placed on which was 
written for the instruction of the multitude, " Joan, who 
has taken the name of the Maid, liar, wrong-doer, de- 
ceiver of the people, witch, superstitious, blasphemer of 
God, presumptuous, unbeliever, braggart, idolater, cruel, 
lewd, sorceress, apostate, schismatic, and heretic."^ The 
scaffold itself, on which the wood was piled, had been 
made high, so that all the crowd might see the burn- 

1 P. i. 470 et seq. The sentence prepared for May 24 was used, 
with a new preamble. See i. 473. 

2 P, ii. 20, Massieu. 

^ Ralph Butler, See Beaurepaire, Recherches, 22. 

* See P. ii. 6, 8, 20, 324, 351, 359, 363, 375 ; iii. 165, 169, 186, 188, 
190, 194, 202. This omission was much insisted upon at the time 
of the second trial. If an error was made, it was wholly technical, 
of course, for the bailiff was willing to pronounce any sentence re- 
quired. 

6 P. ii. 369, Fabre ; iii. 63, De la Chambre ; 65, Bp. of Noyon j 
165, Boisguillaume ; 202, Daron. 

6 P. iv. 459. 



THE EELAPSE AND THE EXECUTION. 341 

ing.^ As Joan was about to mount it with her confes- 
sor, she asked for a cross. An English soldier gave her 
one made on the spot from two sticks fastened together ; 
she kissed it devoutly and, praying all the time, thrust 
it into her bosom under her dress. From the church of 
St. Saviour opposite they brought her the crucifix, and 
this, too, she kissed and embraced while they bound her 
to the stake. ^ v ' 

After the fastenings had been secured, the executioner 
set the fagots afire. The scaffold was so high that he 
was hindered in his work, and the wood did not burn as 
quickly as he had expected. When Joan saw the flame, 
she told La Pierre ^ to descend with the crucifix, and she 
begged him, when he had done so, to hold it up for her 
to look on as long as she could see. She had not lost her 
faith in her voices, or else it came back to her in the fire, 
for those standing near by heard her speak the name of 
St. Michael, who had appeared to her in her first vision 
in Domremy. At the last, through the flames, they 
heard her call again and again with a loud voice, " Jesus, 
Jesus." * 

^ P. ii. 9, Ladvenu. 

2 P, ii. 20, Massieu. 

8 P. i. It is somewhat uncertain whether La Pierre or Ladvenu 
held the crucifix. Both were with her on the scaffold. See P. ii. 6, 
20, 303 ; iii. 169. I think it was the former. 

'^ P. ii. 6, 303, 352, La Pierre ; 9, Ladvenu ; ii. 19, iii. 159, Massieu ; 
ii. 321, Taquel ; 344, Manchon ; ii. 347, iii. 182, Cusquel ; ii. 377, 
Fave ; iii. 53, De la Chambre ; 56, Bp. of Noyon ; 90, Marcel ; 129, 
Miget ; 177, Fabre ; 179, Caval ; 186, Le Parmentier ; 188, Gues- 
don ; 194, Moreau ; 202, Daron. For the name of St. Michael, see 
ii. 324, Bouchier ; iii. 53, De la Chambre ; 159, Massieu. It is said 
that Joan's ashes were thrown into the Seine. P. iii. 160. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE REHABILITATION. / 

The life of Joan was complete at her death, and her 
■jyjg^ _ story loses something of its symmetry by in- 
June, eluding an account of her second trial. As that 
trial, however, and the events that led up to it 
really help to explain her life and character, their history 
should be added. 

In Normandy the auto-da-fe was never a popular sport, 
as it was for centuries in Spain. Some of those who 
heard Midi's sermon would not stay in the market-place 
after the fire was lighted.^ Those who remained were 
strangely moved. The sight of Joan's death made not 
a few priests believe her to be a martyr. Alepee, a 
canon of Rouen, who had shown her no special favor, 
was heard to say, as she burned before his eyes, " Would 
that my soul were in the same place as the soul of that 
woman." ^ With the pay which he had receivvid for his 
services at the trial, the notary Manchon bought a missal 
in memory of Joan, so that he might pray for her.^ A 
secretary of Henry VI., so it was said, going home after 
the execution, declared that Joan had died a good Chris- 
tian, and that her soul was in the hand of God. The 
chancellor, Louis, bishop of Therouanne, John of Luxem- 
burg's brother, was reported to have shed tears ; men 

1 P. ii. 363, Miget ; iii, 56, Bp. of Noyon ; 62, Conrcelles. See 
Beaurepaire, Recherches, 70. Some, probably most, of the heretics 
mentioned by him were not burnt. 

8 P. iii. 191, Riquier. See, also, iii. 169, Ladvenu. 

8 P. ii. 15 ; iii. 150, Manchon. 



THE REHABILITATION. 343 

said that even Cauchon had wept.^ That very afternoon, 
about four o'clock, the executioner went to the Domin- 
ican monastery and sought out Ladvenu and La Pierre, 
fearing God's wrath for what he had done. In his dis- 
tress he bewailed that he had not been able to do his 
work properly, and that Joan had suffered a crueller 
death than others whom he had burned ; and he told the 
already excited monks that he had not been able to con- 
sume her heart, though he had freely used both sulphur 
and charcoal.^ Other stories about the execution, some 
true, some exaggerated, some quite legendary, began to fill 
men's minds with wonder and awe. An English soldier, 
so one of these stories ran, had conceived such hatred 
of Joan that he swore with his own hands to throw a 
fagot into the fire. He did so, and at the moment of her 
death heard her call on Jesus and saw a white dove in 
the midst of the flames ; thereupon he had staggered 
into a tavern proclaiming that Joan- was a holy woman.* 
The impression thus made by Joan's death was lasting. 
It was currently reported in Rouen that all who had been 
guilty of it died wretchedly, — Midi, a leper ; Estivet, in 
a brothel. The fact that this report was not altogether 
true does not make it less noteworthy. Throughout the 
loyal provinces, also, Joan's name was a household word, 
kept constantly in remembrance by the tales of those who 
had served with her in arms, and by the yearly celebra- 
tion of the deliverance of Orleans. 

Meantime, though the war dragged on, the situation of 
France and England was changed. Two years 
after Joan's death, in June, 1438, as La Tre- 
moille slept at Chinon, some partisans of the constable 

1 P. ii. 307, 320, 347, 352 ; Hi. 129, 177, 182. 

2 P. ii. 7, 352, La Pierre ; 9, Ladvenu. His name seems to have 
been Geoffrey Therage. See Beaurepaire, Recherches, 38. 

* P. ii. 352, La Pierre. It may occur to the reader that the soldier 
was posfibly drunk. This may have been the case, or the whole 



344 JOAN OF ARC. 

Richemont and of the king's young brotlier-in-law, Charles 
of Maine, entered the castle by stealth, burst into the fa- 
vorite's chamber and dragged him from his bed, wounding 
him severely in the struggle. When the king first heard 
the noise he was considerably frightened, but the queen 
speedily coaxed him into good humor. If the grim con- 
stable himself had been there, probably he would have 
served La Tremoille as he had served his predecessors 
Le Camus and Giac.^ Unfortunately, milder counsels pre- 
vailed. La Tremoille was put to ransom, and lived for 
some years to plot against the government, though he 
never regained the king's favor. He died in 1446.^ 

The party which succeeded to the control of the king 
1435- sincerely wished for peace with Burgundy and 
^^^' was ready to give almost anything to secure it. 
Philip was not unwilling. He had become tired of the 
English alliance, and his sister, Bedford's wife, who had 
labored hard to unite the two dukes, was now dead.^ At 
Arras, in 1435, the treaty was settled, — in some of its 
conditions a hard one for Charles, but effectually secur- 
ing to him the French crown.^ By renouncing the crown 
at once, Henry VI. might have kept several French prov- 
inces, but Bedford died just a week before the treaty 
of Arras was signed, and in him the boy king lost his 
only able and faithful adviser.^ After Bedford's death 
the English government fell into a disorder like that of 
Charles VII. 's administration in the first years of his reign. 
As the French soldiers learned discipline, as French finan- 
cial management improved, and French administration 

story may have been apocryphal. Its importance comes altogether 
from the credit it gained. 

^ See p. 11, ante. 

2 Beaueourt, ii. 297 ; Cagny, 96, v. ; Godefroy, Hist. Charles VII., 
386 ; Les la Tremoille, xxii. 

^ Beaueourt, ii. 455. 

* Beaueourt, ii. 505 et seq. ; Vallet de V., ii. 315. 

* Beaueourt, ii. 53 ; Stevenson, Letters of Henry VL, Ixx. 



THE REHABILITATION. 345 

became more honest and efficient, tlie English soldiers 
turned brigands, English taxation became more oppressive, 
and English administration inefficient and corrupt. In 
1435 St. Denis was taken, in 1436 Paris went over to 
Charles,^ and only the turbulence of the French nobility ^ 
and the real affection for English rule felt by the men 
of Bordeaux put off Charles's final triumph for twenty 
years. In 1444 the English were forced to sign a truce ; 
this enabled the husbandmen to cultivate what once had 
been fertile fields, but which in many parts of France 
were become literally a tangled wilderness.^ 

During the first years that followed Joan's death, it 
is not easy to trace precisely the fortunes of her family. 
Her father soon died. At some time her brother John 
was made provost of Vaucouleurs. Her brother Peter, 
who had been taken prisoner with her at Compiegne, 
found it hard to raise the money needed for his ransom. 
He was released on parole, however, and married a girl 
from Domremy, whose dowry was spent in getting her 
husband's release. James, or Jacquemin, who had not fol- 
lowed his sister to the war, continued to live in Domremy, 
and there for some years lived Joan's mother, Isabel.* 

In May, 1436, five years after Joan's execution, there 
appeared in the neighborhood of Metz, about 
fifty miles from Domremy, a young woman who 
gave herself out to be Joan. Her story stirred the curi- 
osity of the people of Metz ; many went out to see her 
and gave her presents, including a horse which she man- 
aged cleverly. Joan's brothers, John and Peter, soon 
arrived, and publicly recognized the impostor as their 
sister. It is not easy to explain their conduct. The age 

^ Beaucourt, ii. 53 ; iii. 7. 

^ As shown by the affair of the Pragiierie, for example. 
^ Beaucourt, iii. 266 et seq. ; Basin, i. 161. 

* P. ii. 74, n. ; v. 212 ; B. de Molandon, Fam. de J., 2" tableau, and 
p. 12. 



346 JOAN OP ARC 

was credulous, and the brothers were not remarkably 
intelligent ; when the story of their sister's return was 
first told them, they may not have realized its absurdity, 
but may honestly have expected to find her. At the first 
sight, their recognition may have been honest, but they 
could not have been long deceived. Perhaps they were 
ashamed to confess their blunder, and it seems probable 
that they expected to gain by it. To Joan of Arc alive, 
the king and the city of Orleans owed an immense debt of 
gratitude, in the payment of which her brothers might 
well hope to share. 

Whatever was the motive of their conduct, they stayed 
with the woman in the neighborhood of Metz for some 
time. She did not want cleverness ; she evaded incon- 
venient questions by oracular speech, and, though she 
promised to accomplish great things, she announced that 
power was not to be given her until midsummer. She 
sent letters to Charles VII. and to Orleans, and finally dis- 
patched John to the king, probably in quest of money. 
Charles would promise money only for John's journey, 
and did not pay even that ; whereupon the young man 
appealed to the city of Orleans, and was given twelve 
pounds. The pursuivants of the city made several jour- 
neys to Metz, carrying letters back and forth, but Orleans 
continued to celebrate a requiem mass on the anniver- 
sary of Joan's death.^ 

The adventuress, whose real name seems to have been 
Claude, was restless. Before John's return from Orleans 
she entered the duchy of Luxemburg, and was well re- 
ceived by the duchess. Cutting loose from her pretended 
relatives or deserted by them, she captivated Ulrich, count 
of Wiirtemberg, and went with him to Cologne, probably 
as his mistress. Her wild blood made her fancy to play 
at soldiering; Ulrich gave her a fine suit of armor, and 
she announced that she would enthrone one of the rival 
1 See P. V. 326, 274 ; Lecoy, Le roi Rene, i. 314. 



THE REHABILITATION. 347 

claimants of the archbishopric of Treves. She danced 
and drank with the men at arms, and declared that she 
had the miraculous power of making whole, in a moment, 
torn clothes and broken bottles. Her antics aroused the 
Inquisition, but by the help of Count Ulrich she got away 
from Cologne, though she did not escape excommunica- 
tion. Before long she was again in Luxemburg, where 
the count seems to have left her, and where, before the 
end of 1436, she married a knight, Robert of Armoises. 
With him she went to live in his town house at Metz.^ 

Claude could not long abide in a life of sober respectar 
bility. Two or three years after her marriage 1439- 
she left her husband and wandered to Orleans, ^*^' 
where she was received with hesitating respect. The 
city did not disavow her ; on the contrary, the council 
sent her presents of meat and wine, and even gave her 
two hundred and ten pounds " for the good she had done 
the town during the siege." It is tolerably clear, how- 
ever, that her story got no enthusiastic acceptance.^ 

During the summer of 1439 she moved uneasily up and 
down the Loire, trying to make good her claims. The 
king and his council would not acknowledge her, though, 
according to one story, she gained admission to Charles's 
presence.^ Finding herself discredited, she again took to 
arms, and in the company of a few soldiers carried on a 
marauding warfare in the province of Maine.* The next 
year, with a band of freebooters whose professed object 
was the relief of Harfleur, she approached Paris, creating 
some excitement by her pretensions. At length the au- 
thorities decided to put an end to the strange delusion. 
By order of the Parliament and of the University of Paris 
Claude was seized, brought to the city, and exhibited on 

^ P. V. 323 et seq. ; Calmet, Hist. Lorraine, v. 189, Ixxi. 

2 P. V. 331. 

3 P. iv. 281, Sala. 
* P. V. 332. 



348 JOAN OF AEC. 

the stone near tlie court-house where cheats were exposed. 
Her true story was rehearsed to the people by the crier, 
with embellishments which may well have been apocryphal.^ 
After this exposure she was let go her way, in utter con- 
tempt, and was almost instantly forgotten. Those whom 
she had deluded and those who had pretended to believe 
in her had no wish to perpetuate her memory. Nearly 
twenty years later Rene of Anjou pardoned her out of the 
prison into which some obscure quarrel had cast her.^ 

The truce made in 1444 lasted five years. In 1449 the 
1444- English government was weak, on the verge of 
1450. ^j^-j ^^j. ^^ liome, unable to control its mercenary 
captains, and too proud to give up the English possessions 
in northern France for the sake of keeping the country 
about Bordeaux, which had been held for two centuries 
and a half and whose people really desired English rule. 
The French were strong, united, well organized, refreshed 

^ Beaucourt, iii. 20 ; Joum Bourg., ann. 1440. 

2 See Lecoy, Le roi Rem, i. 308, 324. M, Boucher de Molandon 
(^Famille de J., 127 et seq.) supposes this to be another woman, who 
imposed upon some of Joan's more distant relatives even after the 
proceedings for rehabilitation had been begun. For an imitation of 
Joan, see Vallet de V., Charles VII., ii. 456 ; Bourdign^, Chron. 
d' Anjou, ii. 212 ; Jean de Troyes, ann. 1460. The false Joans left 
no trace on the records of the second trial. I had long supposed 
that the most preposterous credulity in the world was that of a 
French "freethinker." One of these, M. Lesigne, in his La Fin 
d'une Legende, published in 1889, maintains that the English saved 
Joan alive for fear of reprisals. A later and perfectly orthodox per- 
son has fairly outdone him by writing a sizable book to show that 
Joan and Claude were sisters, who saved France and tried to save 
England from the Templars or freemasons, of whom Winchester was 
grand master. Unfortunately, Claude was flighty, and fell under 
the influence of a lodge of female freemasons, whereby her morals 
were seriously corrupted. Les Dessous de VHistoire, by Francis Andr^. 
Of course, it may be said that M. Lesigne is merely incredibly credu- 
lous, while M. Andrd is positively insane. Really there is not much 
difference. For a review of the question, see Lef^vre Pontalis, La 
fausse Jeanne d^Arc. 



THE REHABILITATION. 349 

for the battle. The English gave the provocation which 

the French desired. War broke out, and Normandy was 

lost to the English as fast as the French troops could 

march through it. In October, 1449, Charles entered 

Rouen, and by 1450 he had conquered all northern France 

except Calais. 

In February, 1450, while he was still near Rouen, 

Charles issued a commission to William Bouille, 

, , , . . . 1450. 

a doctor in theology, to make inquiry concerning 

the trial of Joan.^ Her condemnation as a witch had been 

intended to injure Charles in the opinion of all Europe, 

and to some extent the intention had been accomplished. 

Now that he had the official record of the trial in his hands, 

and many of the men who had taken part in it under his 

control, Charles meant to reverse the judgment which had 

declared him to have gained his throne by the help of 

sorcery .2 Some regard for Joan's reputation may well 

have joined these political motives. 

Without delay Bouille took at Rouen the depositions of 
the Dominicans La Pierre and Ladvenu, of the notary 
Manchon and of several others who had seen Joan just 
before her death.^ He had no jurisdiction, however, except 
that of a commissioner to take evidence, and his labors 
lasted but a few days. Afterwards he prepared a memoir 
or opinion favorable to Joan, for the use of the judges in 
her new trial when that new trial should be granted by 
the pope.* 

For some time nothing more could be done. Joan had 
been tried before an ecclesiastical court, and without the 
pope's orders its proceedings could not be reviewed. Her 
condemnation had been a political act, offensive to the 
French, and to reverse her sentence would be a political 

' P. ii. 1 ; Beaucourt, v. 360, n. 

2 See P. vi. 325, opinion of BouilW. 

^ P. ii. 2 et seq. 

* P. vi. 323. 



850 JOAN OF ARC. 

act offensive to England. The pope, Nicholas V., did not 
wish to offend the English, and his relations with Charles 
were not altogether pleasant. 

About two years later, the French cardinal Estoute- 
ville, then the papal legate, together with the 
inquisitor Brehal, issued another commission to 
take evidence, and under its authority more than twenty 
witnesses were examined at Rouen.^ The object o£ Es- 
touteville's mission to Charles was to secure for the pope 
an increase of authority over the French clergy, and the 
legate may have been willing to humor the king in the 
matter of Joan, especially as the perpetuation of the tes- 
timony of a few witnesses in no way committed the pope. 
Estouteville's negotiations with Charles were not alto- 
gether successful, and no further legal steps in Joan's 
case were taken for about three years more.^ 

The pride of France was too deeply engaged to let the 
matter drop. The French inquisitor, Brehal, was alto- 
gether under the influence of the court ; and perhaps be- 
cause he was bidden, perhaps, also, because he was really 
convinced of Joan's innocence, he submitted the minutes 
of the first trial, together with the evidence taken in 1450 
and 1452, to distinguished experts in matters ecclesiastical. 
Like experts who are nowadays engaged by a party to a 
suit, these men knew what opinion was expected of them, 
and they made a report favorable to Joan, doubtless with 
reasonable sincerity. Elaborate written opinions were 
thus rendered, some by well-known French churchmen, 
others by officials of the Roman court, and these were 
used, apparently, to influence the pope and his councilors.^ 

With Nicholas V. neither the opinion of experts nor the 
personal appeals of Brehal, made in more than one visit to 

^ P. ii. 291 et seq. See Belou and Balme, Jean Brehal. 
^ Beaucourt, v. 363. 

8 See Belon and Balme, Jean Brehal, 46, and the text of the opin- 
ions in P. vi. 



THE BEHABILITATION. 351 

Rome, were of any avail. Early in 1455 Nicholas died 
and was succeeded by a Spaniard, the first of the 
Borgias, Calixtus III. The new pope was ready 
to act, but before his buU was issued those in charge of the 
case thought best to change the form of the petition for a 
new trial. For five years it had been urged in the name 
of Charles, but in order to make the proceedings less 
offensive to the English, or for some other reason, a new 
petition was brought in the name of Joan's mother, Isabel, 
and of her two brothers, Peter and John.^ Begun in this 
way, the new trial would seem more like an act of private 
justice, less like political revenge. The bull of Pope Ca- 
lixtus, issued June 11, 1455, directed John Juvenal des 
Ursins, archbishop of Rheims, William Chartier, bishop 
of Paris, and Richard Olivier, bishop of Coutances, with a 
representative of the Inquisition, to reopen Joan's case, 
and to make therein a just decision which they should 
cause to be observed.^ All the judges were strong sup- 
porters of Charles and of the French monarchy, and it is 
doing them no injustice to say that their decision was 
predetermined like that of Cauchon. 

On November 7 of the same year, the court held its first 
sitting in the cathedral of Paris. Isabel appeared with 
her sons, some of her other kinsfolk, and some of the men 
of Orleans, in which city she had been living for fifteen 
years. Helped by the learned counsel who advised her, 
she told the story of her daughter's wrongs, weeping 
bitterly amidst the shouts and cries of the excited multi- 
tude. So great was the tumult that the judges and parties 
at length withdrew into the sacristy. There, doubtless for 
the sake of keeping an appearance of impartiality in the 
official report of their proceedings, the judges told Isabel 
that it was not easy to grant what she asked, inasmuch as 

^ P. ii. 95 ; Beaucourt, v. 368 ; Belon and Balme, 66. 
2 P. ii. 95. The choice of a representative of the Inquisition was 
left to the bishops. Br^hal was chosen, as a matter of course. 



1152 JOAN OF ARC. 

there was grave presumption of her daughter's guilt* 
They promised, however, to examine the matter care* 
fuUy.i 

Ten days later, the court held another public session 
in the cathedral. In the presence of an enormous crowd, 
one of Isabel's counsel opened the case with a panegyric 
on Joan and a fierce attack upon Cauchon and his col- 
leagues. In Orleans, in Rheims, even in Rouen, no 
panegyric would have been needed, but the men of Paris 
had never seen Joan. They remembered only the terror 
of the day when she attacked the gate of St. Honore, and 
the more recent pillorying of her wretched counterfeit. 
Doubtless these public sessions were intended to influence 
their opinion.^ 

To tell in detail the story of Joan's second trial would 
be needlessly wearisome. Many witnesses were examined 
at Domremy ^ and Vaucouleurs,^ in Orleans ^ and Rouen.^ 
Among them were notable men : princes of the blood, 
such as Alen^on, — Joan's " fair duke," — and the Bas- 
tard of Orleans, now count of Dunois ; old soldiers like 
Gaucourt and Thibaud of Armagnac ; royal councilors 
like Simon Charles ; there were substantial burghers and 
burghers' wives from Orleans, among them Charlotte 
Boucher, now a mother,'' who as a child shared Joan's 
bed. At Domremy there testified the neighbors of Joan's 
childhood and the girls of her own age ; at Vaucouleurs 
her uncle Laxart, Catherine le Royer, with whom she 
spent her weeks of waiting, and her first companions in 

1 P. ii. 87 et seq. ; iii. 368. 

2 P. ii. 92 et seq. 

3 P. ii. 387 et seq. 

* P. ii. 435 et seq. 
^ P. iii. 1 et seq. 

* P. iii. 128 et seq. Some depositions, also, were taken at Paris 
and elsewhere. 

"^ B. de Molandon, Jacques Boucher, in Mem. soc. arch. hist. OrleanaiSf 
t. xxii. 428. 



THE EEHABILITATION. 353 

arms, John of Metz and Bertrand of Poulengy. Aulon 
her squire, Coutes her page, Pasquerel her confessor, told 
what they had heard and seen. In Rouen were examined 
the notaries who took down her words, the sergeant who 
served her with process, the physicians who attended her, 
the common people who went to see her in her dungeon 
out of curiosity. Courcelles testified, who had voted to 
put her to the torture, and so did the wretch who would 
have stretched her on the rack. Considerably more than 
one hundred depositions were taken at this time, in addi- 
tion to those which had been taken under the commis- 
sions of Bouille and Estouteville. 

As was to be expected under the circumstances, the 
testimony was favorable to Joan. It seems to have been 
given willingly. Two or three of those who took part in 
the first trial refused, without evil consequence, to con- 
demn its proceedings or to take part in Joan's eulogy.^ 
The witnesses were all asked the same questions, and 
therefore their answers were sometimes mechanical and 
stereotyped. Very many of these answers, however, 
were made with much fullness and freedom, and even in 
the abridged report often illustrate the character of the 
witnesses as well as give information about Joan. The 
substance of the depositions is to be found in the preced- 
ing chapters, but there are one or two peculiarities of the 
testimony which should be noticed here. 

In this mass of nearly one hundred and fifty deposi- 
tions, including those taken by Bouille and Estouteville, 
the apparent freshness of the witnesses' recollections is 

^ See P. iii. 183. Marguerie admitted that the English were actu- 
ated by hatred, but asserted that some notable men acted from proper 
motives. Probably he was thinking of himself. He also denied that 
Joan submitted to the church, though her friends wished to prove 
such a submission. Undoubtedly most of the assessors who testified 
at the rehabilitation represented themselves as having favored Joan 
at the first trial more thau they actually had done. 



354 JOAN OF ARC. 

noteworthy, and especially the tenacity with which phrases 
used by Joan stuck in the memory. The record of the 
testimony was made in Latin,^ but these phrases were 
often left in their original French.^ Seldom do they 
have any trace of the personality of the witness, almost 
always they are full of the personality of Joan, as exhib- 
ited in the language taken down from her own lips and 
found in the minutes of her trial. Even when the wit- 
nesses' recollection of her words is translated into Latin, 
her quaint terseness can often be recognized. 

Most of the deponents, in closing their testimony, for- 
mally declared that they believed Joan had been a pious 
Catholic and a good girl. To this formal declaration 
some added an opinion plainly individual. The rude 
soldier Macy, who had practiced his horse - play on her 
at Beaurevoir, ended his testimony with the words, " I 
believe she is in paradise." ^ " I do not doubt that she 
died a Catholic," said her confessor Ladvenu ; " indeed, I 
wish my soid were now where I believe Joan's soul to 
be." * " In my opinion she was a very good Christian," 
said her squire Anion ; " and she must have been in- 
spired, for she loved all that a good Christian ought to 
love, and especially she loved well any right valiant fellow 
whom she knew to be of chaste life." ^ "I believe that 
she was led by the spirit of God, and that there was in 
her a virtue divine, not human," said a lawyer who had 
seen her at Orleans.^ " It was a great consolation to con- 
verse with her," said Beauharnais, a burgher of the city.'^ 

The rest of 1455 and the first six months of 1456 were 
spent in taking testimony, in framing articles, in citing 

1 Except that of Anion, and those taken by Bouilld. 

2 See P. iii. 12, 48, 53, 68, 96, 97, 98, 126, 155, 168, 202. 
8 P. iii. 123. 

* P. iii. 169. 

^ P. iii. 219. 

« P. iii. 128, Viole. 

' P. iii. 31. 



THE REHABILITATION. 355 

the heirs of Cauchon to appear before the tribunal, and 
in making and hearing lengthy arguments. On 
July 7, at about eight o'clock in the morning, in 
the great hall of the archbishop's palace at Rouen, the 
judges pronounced sentence, as follows : " We declare and, 
in accordance with the requirements of justice, we decree 
that the articles set forth in the case submitted to us and 
in the sentence pronounced against the said deceased, 
were corruptly, deceitfully, calumniously, fraudulently, 
and maliciously put together from the confession of the 
said deceased, by suppressing truth and expressing false- 
hood in matters of substance material to the determina- 
tion of the case. Many aggravating circumstances not 
contained in the proceedings and in the confession were 
improperly inserted, while some alleviating circumstances 
therein were passed over, and the language thereof was 
substantially altered. Wherefore we avoid and annul the 
said articles as false, as calumniously and fraudulently 
prepared, and as inconsistent with the confession of the 
accused, and we adjudge that the said articles, which we 
have caused to be taken from the files, be here formally 
destroyed. 

" We decide, pronounce, decree, and declare that the 
said proceedings and sentence, containing fraud, calumny, 
injustice, inconsistency, and manifest error in law and 
fact, together with the said abjuration, execution, and aU 
matters thereafter following, have been, are, and shall be 
null, invalid, and void. Wherefore, as is reasonable and 
needful, we avoid and annul the same, and pronounce them 
to be of none effect, declaring that the said Joan, together 
with her kinsfolk and all plaintiffs in this suit, has re- 
ceived no mark or stain of infamy by reason of the fore- 
going, but is and shall be harmless and cleared from the 
foregoing, and so far as is needful we hereby absolutely 
clear her. 

" We order that execution or solemn notification of this 



356 JOAN OF ARC. 

our sentence shall be made forthwith in this city, in two 
* places ; to wit, to-day in the place of St. Ouen, by a pub- 
lic procession and a public sermon, and to-morrow in the 
Old Market, the place in which the said Joan was cruelly 
and horribly burned to death, by a solemn discourse, and 
by the erection of a decent cross to keep her in everlast- 
ing remembrance, and to provoke prayers for her salva- 
tion and that of other departed souls. The further 
execution and notification of our said sentence, with the 
solemn proclamation thereof in the cities and principal 
places of the realm, and other things to be done, if any 
there be, we reserve for our disposal hereafter as may 
seem to us fitting." 

A fortnight later, upon further order of the court, there 
was a procession at Orleans also, attended by two of the 
judges. As has been said already, the people of Orleans 
had waited for no judicial decree to celebrate every year 
the deliverance of their city by Joan the Maid. 



APPENDIX. 



A. THE CHARACTER OF CHARLES VH. 

The character of Charles VII. has proved a puzzle to most 
historians. A prediction, made at almost any time in the first 
twelve years of his reign, that he would die deservedly surnamed 
the Victorious, would have seemed quite as absurd as a like pre- 
diction made in 1895 concerning the Chinese emperor. The 
disposition to attribute to the character of a mediaeval monarch 
the success or failure which attended his reign is so strong that 
all sorts of theories have been formed to account for the change 
in Charles's fortunes. The theory accepted for centuries gave 
the credit of the change to Agnes Sorel, who was supposed to 
have roused the energies of an indolent but able king. Recent 
investigation has shown, however, that this Sorel legend is pure 
fiction, that Agnes did not become the king's mistress until he 
was about forty years old and had reigned twenty years, that the 
letters attributed to her are modern forgeries, that she had no 
political influence whatever, and differed from the other royal 
mistresses only in possessing rather uncommon beauty. If 
Agnes Sorel's meeting with Charles be too late to account for 
his regeneration, Joan's appearance is too early, since Charles 
was undoubtedly sunk in torpor for several years after Joan's 
capture. 

The latest historian of Charles VII., the Marquis de Beau- 
court, who has finally disposed of the Sorel legend, has developed 
a theory of Charles's character which differs somewhat from any 
before suggested. According to him, Charles was a man of 
exceptional ability and excellent intentions, who showed much 
vigor as a boy of eighteen, later yielded himself to the influence 
of bad favorites, whose control he threw off from time to time, 
ontil at the age of thirty-two or thereabouts he asserted him* 



358 APPENDIX. 

self as a great ruler, and continued to direct the affairs of 
France for more than twenty years, when illness and a weak 
constitution made an indolent invalid of him for a few years 
before his death. 

M. de Beaucourt is a historian always to be mentioned with 
high respect. His learning is very great, his industry untiring, 
and, though the plan of his work is at times a little confusing, 
his style is always clear and readable. More valuable than any 
of these qualities is his absolute candor in stating the facts he 
has discovered. However much any one of these may conflict 
with his theories, M. de Beaucourt always gives it in full, before 
trying to explain it away. His theories are those of a strong 
supporter of the monarchy and of the Roman Catholic church, 
and they color deeply his opinions of the men and events of the 
fifteenth century. Had Charles VII. been only a duke, it is clear 
that he would have received very different treatment at M. de 
Beaucourt's hands. The divinity that hedges a king, and espe- 
cially a king of France, has so affected the historian's judgment 
that he is always finding excuses for his hero. Two examples 
of his partiality will suflBce. 

Charles VII. was an unfaithful husband. It was not his in- 
fidelity that made him a bad ruler ; indeed, as has just been 
observed, a popular legend has long given to one of his lapses 
the credit of having aroused him from a Ufe of unkingly sloth 
to a sense of his royal duties. M. de Beaucourt is so desirous 
of saving as much as possible of Charles's reputation that he 
tries to show that his early married life was exemplary, and that 
his excesses were confined to his later years.^ To establish this, 
he proves conclusively that Charles issued edicts against profane 
swearing and was observant of the rites of the church ; that he 
heard three masses a day, recited the canonical hours and the 
office for the dead, confessed himself daily, and communicated 
on all feast days. In common life, M. de Beaucourt knows very 
well that all this, however praiseworthy, is worthless as evidence 
of marital fidelity, and in his zeal to eulogize the king he so far 
forgets logic, that he produces excellent evidence of Charles's 
continued habits of devotion at a time when his debauchery is 
admitted. 

^ Beaucourt, ii. 177 et seq. 



APPENDIX. 359 

Again, M. de Beaucourt, like the brave gentleman he is, 
feels keenly Charles's betrayal of Joan. Many of the excuses he 
offers for the king he would consider deadly insults if applied 
to himself in like case ; one excuse is of surpassing ingenuity. 
As evidence that the king " remained constantly faithful to the 
memory of Joan of Arc," he tells us that in 1441, at the head 
of his army, he passed through the village of Greux near Dom- 
3remy, and that a few years afterward he actually slept one 
night in the place.^ 

The illustrations given show the strength of M. de Beau- 
court's prejudices ; it would be very unfair to imply that he 
does not give much stronger reasons for his opinion of Charles's 
character and abilities. As he is Charles's strongest champion, 
his arguments deserve careful consideration. M. de Beaucourfc 
quotes a phrase of Lacordaire : ^ " It belongs to those of a given 
age to judge its affairs and its men," and he cites as evidence of 
Charles's reputation the compliments paid him by foreign em- 
bassies, and the eulogies of him written by the court poet and 
the court chroniclers. Such evidence, of course, is worthless, 
but that of two independent historians, Thomas Basin, bishop 
of Lisieux, and George Chastellain, the Burgundian, deserves 
fuller consideration. At the first reading, Basin does certainly 
seem to speak of Charles with great respect, not only in the 
passage quoted by M. de Beaucourt, but in many other places as 
well. Closer examination shows the singular reason of his ad- 
miration. The principal motive of Basin's history was hatred 
of Louis XI., and he used praise of the father simply as a foil to 
abuse of the son. Thus he lays great stress upon Charles's faith 
in keeping his promises in order that he may emphasize the utter 
faithlessness of Louis. "Whenever, which is seldom, he forgets 
for a moment his hatred of Louis, his real opinion of Charles 
appears, as when, for example, he describes him as " drenching 
his passions in drunkenness and debauchery, stupid in sloth and 
self-indulgence." ' 

The praise given by Chastellain to Charles VII. is largely of 
the same sort. Sometimes he, too, wished to express his dis- 
approval of Louis ; * sometimes his praise was written directly 

^ Beaucourt, ii. 256, 256. ' Beaucourt, vi. 445. 

8 Basin, i. 116. * Chastellain, vii. 325, n. 



860 APPENDIX. 

for Charles's consumption.^ His real opinion of tlie king proba- 
bly finds its best expression in " La mort du roy Charles VII." ^ 
a Mystery in which France thanks Charles for her deliverance, 
and the king modestly refers the thanks to his lords and cap- 
tains. Their replies occupy more than three quarters of the 
poem, and are nearly as modest as the king's. Doubtless 
ChasteUain was affected by the traditional respect which at- 
tended a king, but he knew that Charles's success was due to 
his lieutenants and ministers. 

Any real knowledge of the character of Charles VII. must be 
derived, of course, not from a balancing of the opinions of his 
contemporaries, but from a study of the events of his life. 
He was born in 1403, of a father who had been intermittently 
insane for more than ten years, and of a mother whose char- 
acter made Charles's doubts concerning his paternity quite rea- 
sonable, though they were probably unjust. The court in 
which he was brought up was violent and corrupt ; from this 
court he was literally carried off in his night-clothes by a bravo, 
himself violent and corrupt, whose only virtue was his courage. 
Because Tanneguy du Chatel and others like him transported 
the Dauphin rapidly from place to place during several years, 
M. de Beaucourt thinks the boy showed energy and capacity, 
but there is no evidence of his real intervention in war or in 
politics, and he is easily acquitted of the guilt of the murder at 
Montereau, because, though he probably knew the plot, he could 
not have prevented its execution. At nineteen years of age, in 
1422, he became king. From 1422 to 1429 he was under the 
control of a succession of worthless favorites and made hardly 
a pretense of ruling. He is said to have borne a personal 
grudge against Richemont because the constable slaughtered 
one or two of these favorites almost in the king's own sight. 
Whether this grudge was real, or merely attributed to Charles 
by a later favorite, cannot certainly be known, so feeble was 
Charles's will. Probably it was real. During all this time his 
crown and the national existence of France were at stake, 
yet he never took the field, his conduct in this resjject being, I 
believe, without a parallel in the history of his age. How he 
acted during Joan's attempts to raise his fortunes is set forth 
1 ChasteUain, vi. 420 et seq. ^ ChasteUain, vi. 437. 



APPENDIX. 361 

in this book. After her capture he remained for about three 
years longer in the control of La Trdmoille, as inactive as he had 
been before his coronation. In 1433 Charles was thirty years 
old, an age at which nearly all the princes of his time, Henry 
IV., Henry V., Louis XL, Philip the Good, Bedford, the Bas- 
tard of Orleans, Alengon, had made their mark on the world for 
good or evil. Charles VIL, like Charles VL and Henry VI., 
had of liimself accomplished nothing. 

At this time Charles of Anjou, the king's brother-in-law, 
seized La Trdmoille as the favorite slept at Chinon, and drove 
him from court. The king slept near by, and at first was dis- 
turbed at the noise made by the conspirators, but was soon 
quieted by the queen, who was probably a party to the plot.^ 
The princes and noblemen who thus got the control of his 
person were distinctly more patriotic than La Trdmoille, and 
France gained by the change ; but Charles was as inert under 
one master as under the other.^ The treaty of Arras was made 
by his ministers.' 

In the year and a half which followed the treaty of Arras, 
Charles VII. showed himself as little concerned in the affairs of 
state as he had been during the thirteen years of his reign which 
preceded it. One minister intrigued against another, but the 
king was indifferent. Doubtless the government of France was 
considerably improved, but this was because Yolande and 
Charles of Anjou, the constable and his supporters, were better 
rulers than La Tr^moille, and were willing to heed the just rep- 
resentations of the bureaucracy and trained civil servants of the 
crown. In the latter part of 1437, however, Charles not only 
took the field in person for the first time since the campaign of 
1429, but at the storming of Montereau he is said to have 
shown distinguished personal bravery. How his conduct is to 
be accounted for, we do not precisely know. The story rests 
principally upon the testimony of one chronicler, who may have 
exaggerated Charles's prowess from a desire to please him. 
Charles was very moody and may have had moments of exalta- 
tion as well as months of depression, in any case his conduct at 

^ Beaucourt, ii. 298 ; Cagny, fol. 96, verso. 

2 Beaucourt, ii. 298. 

8 The duke of Burgundy was present in person. 



362 APPENDIX. 

Montereau had no precedent and at most but one copy; the 
war went on, Charles stayed at home.^ In 1439 the people of 
Paris, partly from distrust of the constable's military adminis- 
tration, partly disgusted at Charles's indifference, complained 
that the king paid no more attention to the affairs of state than 
if he had been a prisoner of the Saracens.^ Loud were the 
complaints of the States General, that is, of the respectable 
middle classes. 

The popular dissatisfaction seems to have been encouraged 
by some of the princes of the blood, who were dissatisfied with 
their share in the government, among them, Bourbon and Alen- 
gon. The conspirators wished to get possession of Charles's per- 
son, as the duke of Burgundy and the Armagnacs used to fight 
for the possession of his father. Knowing that it was of the ut- 
most importance to be able to speak in the king's name, Riche- 
mont and Charles of Anjou anticipated their rivals and carried 
Charles VII. from place to place, making him declare himself 
in the strongest terms opposed to the conspirators. The con- 
stable's energy and military skill triumphed, aided, no doubt, 
by the good sense of the French people, who were pleased at 
his energetic measures against the brigands. Throughout the 
whole affair both parties were clearly persuaded that Charles 
could be made to do anything desired by those who controlled 
his person. The attempts of 1426 and 1433 were repeated, 
though with happily different results. 

In 1440, at the time of the Praguerie, Charles VII. was thirty- 
seven years old, and had reigned eighteen years. He was fee- 
ble in person, and timid even apart from war.* If it be true 
that during the first half of his reign he was the mere tool of 
others, it requires strong evidence to prove him a great con- 
structive statesman in the later half. His new advisers, or mas- 
ters, governed, on the whole, better and better, and they did 
not allow the king to pass the whole of his time in retirement. 
Very probably, Charles himself liked the change, and was not 
unwilling occasionally to show himself in public. In 1441 he 
again took the field, and published an account of his own per- 

^ See Beaueourt, iii. 50 ; Cagny, 106, verso. 
2 Journ. Bourg., ann. 1439. 
^ See Beaueourt, iv. 87. 



APPENDIX. 363 

sonal bravery at the siege of Pontoise.^ In 1442 there was an- 
other attempt by the princes of the blood to get control of the 
government, the dukes of Burgundy and Orleans having joined 
the malcontents. The object of the new conspirators appears 
plainly by their memorial to the king ; it was the overthrow of 
the new state of affairs, in which the house of Anjou, the con- 
stable, and the bureaucratic middle classes governed the coun- 
try, and a return to the old regime of pension, plunder, and 
privilege. This time there was no war. In Charles's name 
the bishop of Clermont replied to the malcontents, and these 
recognized their weakness. It seems to me that I find in this 
reply indications that what I have called the bureaucracy, men 
like the Des Ursins, Brdz^, and Jacques Cceur were gaining 
power even at the expense of Charles of Anjou and the con- 
stable,'^ but all these were united to oppose the arrogant claims 
which Burgundy, Orleans, Bourbon, and Alen^on were united in 
making. To suppose that the king, who was the puppet of the 
struggle of 1440, really directed the course of affairs in 1442, 
would be absurd. 

In 1442 the reform of the administration was firmly estab- 
lished. In 1442-43 there was a successful campaign in the 
southwest ; the constable directed its operations, the king ac- 
companied them. While there is no reason to suppose that 
Charles had any larger shax-e in the government of 1443 than 
in that of 1433 or 1423, he must have been pleased at his new 
prosperity, probably became less moi'ose and liked to appear in 
public instead of shunning it. I see no reason to attribute any 
part of this not very considerable change to Agnes Sorel, who 
became one of the royal favorites at about this time. 

In 1444 came the truce with England, and in 1444-45 was 
undertaken the expedition against Metz, possibly in order to em- 
ploy the men at arms who would otherwise have been ravaging 
the country. Charles took no part in the direction of the war, 
but at Nancy and at Ch§.lons kept a court which was splendid, 
as befitted his bettered fortunes. Unfortunately, its morals had 
not improved with its increased state.* The king was still the 

■^ Beaucourt, iii. 191. 
2 See Beaucourt, iv. 210. 

* See the episode of the death of Margaret of Scotland. Beaucourt, 
iv. 106 et seq. 



364 APPENDIX. 

puppot of any one who controlled his person, and when, in 
1446, the Dauphin Louis intrigued against his ministers, he did 
not take into account the danger of opposition from his father's 
will, hut only the awe which the royal person might strike 
into some of the conspirators.^ Philip of Burgundy said that 
Charles's true place was in a hermitage.* 

In 1449 the war with England hroke out again, and Charles 
accompanied his army in its triumphal progress through Nor- 
mandy. When that campaign of a few months was over, how- 
ever, even M. de Beaucourt admits that for several years 
Charles gave himself to pleasure, debauchery, and unworthy fa- 
vorites, and he urges, in extenuation, that these favorites no 
longer governed France.® In truth, the government had now 
passed for the time into the hands of Brdzd and men of his 
class, who kept Charles contented with money and mistresses, 
and ruled the kingdom, on the whole, pretty well. The guUt, 
if guilt there be, of destroying Jacques Cceur rests upon them, 
and not upon the king, whose name they used. 

I have attempted to appreciate Charles's character, not to give 
an account of the events of his reign. The last six years of it, 
while reasonably prosperous for the kingdom, saw the king's 
health, never robust, give way altogether. His temper became 
constantly morose, he suspected all those about him, and at last 
is said to have hastened death by starving himself for fear of 
poison. 

B. THE INSANITY OR INSPIRATION OF JOAN OF 

ARC. 

The question most commonly asked about Joan of Arc, 
" Was she insane or inspired ? " may seem to have received an 
insufficient answer in the text, and yet it is doubtful if any 
length of discussion will lead to an answer much more definite. 
The facts are few and, for the most part, undisputed ; it is the 
inferences to be drawn from these facts which are in doubt. 
Joan had subjective sensations of sight and sound, perhaps of 

^ See Beaucourt, iv. 194. 
2 See Beaucourt, iv. 208. 
^ Beaucourt, v. 70. 



APPENDIX. 365 

other senses, without external cause sufficient to produce like 
sensations in others. Precisely what these sensations were, we 
do not know. The sensations of sounds sometimes, at least, 
were those of particular words ; the sensations of sight were 
less definite, but apparently they were sometimes visions of 
definite forms in human similitude. The sensations of sound 
were usually accompanied by a somewhat indefinite sensation 
of light. Apart from these abnormal sensations, Joan seems to 
have been a girl perfectly healthy and well developed, both 
physically and mentally. Except so far as these sensations 
prove the contrary, she was little subject to exaltation or ner- 
vous excitement. 

From these facts, the philosophy or opinion of the Middle 
Ages with certainty and without difiiculty drew the conclusion 
of inspiration or possession, either by good spirits or evil. 
Mediaeval philosophy did not deny the possibility of halluci^ 
nation caused by disease without spiritual intervention. This 
possibility was recognized in Joan's case. The choice between 
disease and spirit as the cause of a given sensation was made 
according as the person, apart from the abnormal sensation 
under consideration, appeared diseased or healthy. An abnor- 
mal sensation in an otherwise healthy person was unhesitatingly 
set down to spiritual intervention, and hence Joan's visions and 
voices were set to the account either of God or the Devil. 

Modern opinion or philosophy treats sensations like those 
mentioned as invariably the result of a morbid condition of the 
brain or some other part of the human body. The fact that 
the person shows other morbid symptoms is hardly deemed to 
strengthen this supposition of disease, which is considered to be 
incontrovertible and to need no support. Such sensations are 
called hallucinations, and hallucinations are considered symp- 
toms of diseased or morbid conditions quite as infallible as 
a scurfy skin or a hemorrhage. Precisely what the disease is 
may require further investigation, and may elude investigation 
when made, but some disease or morbid condition is assumed 
without further proof. 

Which of these two theories is correct, the modern or the 
mediasval, or how far either of them is correct, this is hardly 
the place to discuss. It is almost as difficult for an intelligent 



366 APPENDIX. 

man at the end of the nineteenth century to disregard the opin- 
ion or philosophy which I have called modern, as it would have 
been for a man in the fifteenth century to deny the possibility 
of spiritual possession. A few observations upon the modern 
theory may, however, be ventured. 

In the first place, no one can define precisely what morbid 
physical condition of the brain or other part of the body is the 
cause of sensations like those of Joan. It is at least possible 
that no expert now living, though he should have the most 
favorable opportunity to perform a post-mortem examination 
of Joan's body, would be able to discover any morbid physical 
condition whatever to which her abnormal sensations could rea- 
sonably be attributed. We attribute sensations like hers to 
morbid physical conditions by analogy and by a sort of intel- 
lectual necessity, rather than by reason of a course of unvarying 
experiments. 

Again, modern theory and usage tend more and more to 
make the terms " morbid " and " abnormal " synonymous. So 
far has this tendency carried us that writers have maintained in 
all seriousness that genius of pretty much any sort is the result 
of morbid physical conditions, and is a species of insanity. If 
this be admitted, Joan was almost certainly insane, inasmuch as, 
by the terms of the supposition, insanity is contrasted not with 
health and sense, but with stupidity and inferiority. 

A consideration much more important than either of those 
just touched upon remains. Even if it be true that Joan's 
visions and voices were caused by physical conditions abnormal 
and therefore morbid, the discussion is not concluded. Every 
sensation, according to the accepted philosophy, must have a 
physical cause of some sort, but this axiom or hypothesis, or 
whatever else we may choose to call it, does not prevent many 
persons who accept it from believing that something which they 
call God does nevertheless play an important part in the affairs 
of men. In this place, of course, it is impossible to discuss if 
the belief in God be true. Whether true or not, it unquestion- 
ably exists, and those who hold it may believe as reasonably 
that God may send visions by the physical means of what we 
call disease, as that He maintained the American Union by the 
physical means of shot and shell, or inspired a poet or a prophet 



APPENDIX. 36T 

by some physical means as yet undiscovered. The man who 
believes in God may, then, believe Joan to have been inspired, 
and, most probably, will believe it. The man who does not 
believe in God, by the terms of the supposition cannot believe 
her to have been inspired, in the ordinary meaning of the word. 

What has been said concerning Joan's visions and voices 
applies substantially to her supposed gift of prophecy. She cer- 
tainly foretold the deliverance of Orleans and the coronation at 
Rheims. There is no more doubt of the prophecy's authenti- 
city than of its fulfillment, but any one may contend that good 
judgment or good luck, either or both, caused the fortunate 
prophecy, rather than Divine Providence. Moreover, it is prac- 
tically certain that Joan believed that her voices promised her 
deliverance from prison, a real deliverance, and not the allegor- 
ical deliverance by death which some imaginative writers have 
construed as the fulfillment of the promise. 

What I have called modern philosophy may admit the authen- 
ticity and fulfillment of all Joan's predictions, as it must admit 
the authenticity and fulfillment of some of them, without admit- 
ting her divine inspiration or that there is such a thing as divin- 
ity or inspiration in the universe. Those, on the other hand, 
who believe that Divine Providence exists wUl probably be in- 
clined, though they may not be compelled, to find its workings 
in the life of Joan of Arc. Doubtless their theory of her inspira- 
tion will differ more or less from that in vogue in the fifteenth 
century, but this difference will be the result of a different 
theory of inspiration in general, rather than of a different theory 
of Joan's particular case. 

It seems to follow, then, that our opinion concerning Joan's 
insanity or inspiration is likely to depend not much upon our 
beliefs concerning Joan, but principally upon our beliefs con- 
cerning insanity and inspiration in general. As this work does 
not pretend to treat of pathology, metaphysics, or theology, 
the matter must be left here. 



368 APPENDIX. 



C. JOAN OF ARC AND ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 

In order to understand Joan of Arc, it is desirable to com- 
pare her with the visionaries and religious enthusiasts living 
near her time. Of these, St. Catherine of Siena is the most 
distinguished. 

Catherine Benincasa was the child of a dyer, a respectable 
citizen of Siena, neither rich nor poor. Her brothers and sis- 
ters, as well as her parents, were commonplace people. Before 
she was ten years old she saw visions and heard voices, and, 
guided by them, she earnestly desired to follow the religious 
life. At one time she wished to disguise herself as a man, and 
become a Dominican monk.^ Opposed by all those about her, 
she did not desert her father's house, but by a sweet passive 
obstinacy, drudging by day, watching and praying by night, 
before long she conquered her parents' consent, and was received 
as a Penitent of the Third Order of St. Dominic. Her vigils, 
fastings, and self-mortifications increased as her visions multi- 
plied and became more intense, but she did not give herself up 
to a life of seclusion. If a man or woman were sick of a dis- 
order so loathsome as to drive away all other help, Catherine 
became nurse, and aggravated the horrors of her nursing by the 
most fantastic self-torture. Her fame soon spread through her 
city and through Tuscany. She stopped the feuds of her towns- 
men, and made peace between cities.^ By the counsel of her 
voices, she sought to end the Babylonish captivity of the church, 
traveled to Avignon, and helped bring the pope back to Rome. 
Though she had the most exalted notions of papal and ecclesi- 
astical authority, she addressed individual popes and cardinals 
with the utmost boldness, and everywhere denounced the cor- 
ruption of the church. She died in 1380, more than thirty 
years before Joan was born, but the world in which she lived, 
in its ideals and habits, was essentially the same as Joan's. 

The resemblance of Catherine's career to that of Joan is strik- 
ing. Both were members of large families of prosperous work- 
people. None of the relatives of either had any quality of dis- 

1 Acta Sanctorum : Vita S. Cat., 870 B, 871 B, 872 B. 

2 Vita, 903 E, 964 F, 921 A. 



APPENDIX. 369 

tinction. At an early age both girls had sensations of si^lit 
and of hearing which were not felt by their companions. Both 
were intensely religious. The parents of both tried to hinder 
their obedience to the heavenly vision. Both stood before 
kings, and were not ashamed. In the language of Catherine 
may be found an assurance not unlike that which is so charac- 
teristic of Joan. Both were inspired by the most unselfish zeal. 
St. Catherine undoubtedly is the perfect type of the sainted 
woman of the Middle Ages, and many have supposed that the 
same type is exemplified in Joan of Arc. 

The difference between the two women, however, was consid- 
erable, both in body and mind. Joan was a sturdy peasant 
girl of good physique and sound constitution, keeping her health 
in spite of severe bodily and mental distress. Catherine was 
very frail, always ailing, and for many years unable to digest 
her food, that which was originally self-mortification having be- 
come at last a disease. "Worn to a skeleton, she died before she 
was thirty-five. The ecstasies of Catherine, in which she saw 
her visions and heard her voices, have been described by more 
than one eye-witness. She used to fall into a swoon or trance, 
and was utterly unconscious of what went on about her, even 
when spoken to, or shaken ; her body became quite rigid, and 
seemed so brittle that her friends feared she would break in two 
if handled roughly. Precisely what was Joan's appearance 
when her voices spoke to her is not known ; no one has de- 
scribed it particularly, but this very fact shows that it cannot 
have been extraordinary. Among her neighbors at Domremy, 
while she was waiting at Vaucouleurs, Chinon, and Poitiers, on 
her campaigns, in prison at Beaurevoir, and many times a day 
at Rouen, even before her judges, Joan's voices spoke to her 
when curious people were watching her, and, if her visions had 
been accompanied by any physical disturbance, this certainly 
would have been recorded. 

The mental difference between the two women was quite as 
considerable. Catherine was an extreme ascetic. The monk 
who wrote her life was undoubtedly credulous, but when ample 
allowance has been made for his exaggerations, there remains 
a true story of ingenious self-torture. As a child she flogged 
and starved herself. When a little older, she plunged herself 



370 APPENDIX. 

into hot water. She constructed for herself a bed on which sleep 
must have been painful, and fastened a chain about her waist 
next to her skin, in order to guard against passions which in 
her must have been imaginary. Ordinary neatness she con- 
sidered a sin, and she was in great distress because she believed 
herself to love her sister too much. The punishments which 
she inflicted on herself for shrinking from loathsome disease 
cannot be told, they are themselves so loathsome.^ 

Joan was not an ascetic at all. As marked holiness was then 
considered impossible without self -mortification, some of Joan's 
admirei'S tried to make her out an ascetic, but they had scant 
success. She kept the fasts of the church, was moderate in eat- 
ing and drinking, and loved constantly to pray, that was all. 
The archbishop of Rheims was able to complain of her wearing 
fine clothes,^ a complaint which could not have been brought 
against Catherine by her most mendacious enemy. Perhaps the 
contrast between the two women appears most strongly in the 
vows of virginity made by both. Like every one else in the 
Middle Ages, Catlierine believed that virginity was necessary to 
the saintliness for which she longed, and wliile she was yet -a 
child she made her vow accordingly. Joan's beliefs were the 
same as Catherine's, but she thought comparatively little of her 
own saintliness ; it was impossible for a married woman to do 
the work appointed her by heaven, and so she vowed to remain 
single until the work was done. " The pious girl," so wrote 
Catherine's biographer, " knew that a scanty diet and abstinence 
from food and drink were most useful and perchance even in- 
dispensable to the keeping of her maidenhood." ^ Joan's vir- 
ginity, being a practical necessity and not a counsel of perfec- 
tion, needed no such support. When Joan was disheartened 
she did not pine for the shelter of a convent ; she longed only 
to go back to the valley of the Meuse and the life of a peasant 
girl in her father's house. Catherine would have thought such 
a longing earthly and gross, utterly unworthy one who desired 
to lead a saintly life, and Joan would probably have agreed with 
her, for Joan had no thought of becoming a saint, or even of 

» Vita, 872 F, 876 F, 877 D, F, 879 D, 878 F, 888 D, 873 D, E; 
901, 902, 898. 

2 See P. V. 168. « Vita, 960 E. 



APPENDIX. 371 

leading a life especially holy. She had been bidden only to 
save France from the EngUsh. 

Both Catherine and Joan were utterly obedient to their voices, 
and quite unselfish, but Catherine was morbidly self-conscious, 
while Joan hardly thought of herself at aU. Catherine was 
willing to be damned to save others.^ Joan could not have un- 
derstood the idea, and so far as she could have understood it, 
would probably have thought it blasphemous. Catherine con- 
tinually bewailed her faults in the most exaggerated language. 
" I know it is a sign of a well-disposed mind," wrote her bio- 
grapher, " to discover a fault where there is none, and, where the 
fault is slight, greatly to exaggerate it." ^ This is a fair state- 
ment of the ascetic theory, and from that sort of " well-disposed 
mind " Joan was free. Her sin in trying to take her own life 
at Beaurevoir she treated with a fairness almost judicial. Only 
when she had been led to deny her voices, and so to give the lie 
to God himself, did she show the remorse which Catherine daily 
exhibited on no provocation whatever. Catherine was fond of 
telling her confessor about her visions, which generally concerned 
some special favor or privilege granted her by Christ, her heav- 
enly spouse. Joan said little to any one about her voices, even 
to her confessor ; only when it was necessary to accredit herself 
and to accomplish her mission did she speak. There can be 
small doubt that the little which she did tell her judges was told 
in the hope of convincing even them. That Joan was humbler 
than Catherine is not true, — no one could think more meanly 
of herself than did Catherine ; but Joan thought wholly of other 
matters. From an agony of self-abasement Catherine passed to 
ecstatic visions, in which she received the stigmata, or the ring 
which was the proof of her marriage to Christ, or a new heart 
in place of her old one, having been literally heartless for a day 
or two. Nothing can be more remote than all this from the vi- 
sions of Joan ; these concerned almost altogether the work which 
she was called upon to do. Between the language of Catherine 
and that of Joan the difference is so great that no criticism can 
describe it ; it can be appreciated only by reading both. To turn 
from one to the other is like passing from a greenhouse into the 
forest, from the Imitatio Christi to the New Testament. Cath* 
1 Vita, 866 A. « Vita. 873 D. 



S72 APPENDIX. 

erine undoubtedly had a morbid mind in a diseased body. Un' 
less her visions be conclusive proof of disease, Joan's mind and 
body alike were healthy. 

D. THE PROPOSED CANONIZATION OF JOAN OF 

ARC. 

In 1869 Mgr. Dupanloup, bishop of Orleans, delivered the 
annual sermon on Joan of Arc, and expressed the hope that she 
might be canonized. Immediately afterwards, twelve French 
bishops, who had been present at the sermon, addressed a lettei 
to Pope Pius IX., praying that, after proper investigation, can- 
onization might be gi-anted. Bishop Dupanloup was thereupon 
requested to make preliminary inquiry in the usual form ; but 
the Franco-German war intervened, and the inquiry was post- 
poned untU 1874-76, when the depositions of many witnesses 
were taken, principally regarding the reputation for holiness 
enjoyed by Joan in various parts of France for centuries. The 
result of this inquiry was forwarded to Rome, and was referred 
by the pope to Cardinal Bilio. Further explanation was asked 
of Bishop Dupanloup, but, before he could reply, he died, Octo- 
ber 11, 1878. His successor, Bishop CouUi^, continued Bishop 
Dupanloup's efforts and made many visits to Rome. He also 
directed a second preliminary inquiry, in which the testimony 
taken at Joan's two trials and other historical evidence were 
formally authenticated. Pope Leo XIII. seems to have inter-r 
ested himself somewhat more in the matter than did Pius IX., 
and the proper Roman tribunal proceeded with its usual delib- 
eration to the further investigation of the case. 

On January 27, 1894, the congregation of Sacred Rites, on 
the report of Cardinal Parocchi, voted to recommend that the 
commission for the introduction of the case,^ so called, should be 
signed, which was immediately done by the pope. This action 
is the first step toward canonization, and confers upon Joan the 
title of " Venerable." 

The desire for Joan's canonization in France has become na- 
tional, at least among devout Catholics ; and, even among those 
ordinarily indifferent to the Catholic church, patriotism has 

1 " Commissio introductionis causae servas Dei Joannse d'Arc." 



APPENDIX. 373 

largely taken the place of a religious motive, and has led some 
to make of Joan's canonization almost a national political ques- 
tion. This feeling, of course, will insure a reasonably speedy 
and a sympathetic consideration of the question by the Koman 
tribunal. What will be the final decision is quite another mat- 
ter.i 

^ See Sejournd, La canonisation de J.; ib., Proces de Vordinaire 
relatif a la beatification et canonisation de J. ; Ricard, J. la Venera- 
ble, 272 ; Cochard, Za caitse de J. ; Lecoy, Culie de J.; Beaudeau, 
Analyse de Vouvrage du Pape Benoit XIV. sur les beatifications et cetn^ 
onisations, ia Migne, Theologies Cursus, viii. 864. 



INDEX. 



Abbkyille, 172. 

Agincourt, battle of, 5, 21, 25. 

Alain, James, assists Joan, 43 ; goes with 
her to Kancy, 46. 

Albi sends help to Orleans, 91. 

Albret, Charles of, 184 ; at siege of St. 
Pierre le Moustier and La Charity, ib. 

AlenQon, 11. 

AlenQon, John, duke of, 118, 121, 123, 130, 
133, 234, 352 ; comes to court, 58 ; is 
friendly to Joan, 59 ; present at Joan's 
interriewwith Charles VII., 61 ; receives 
Joan at St. Florent, 71 ; given the com- 
mand of the army, 119 ; at siege of Jar- 
geau, 125 ; opposed to the treaty with 
Burgundy, 170 ; at the attack on Paris, 
175 ; removed from the command, 180 ; 
vrishea to attack Normandy, ib. 

Alexander VI., Pope, 183. 

Amiens, 172. 

Anjou, 80. 

Arc en Barrois, 19. 

Arc, Catherine of, 20. 

Arc, Isabel of, mother of Joan, 19, 49, 72 
n., 345 ; at the rehabilitation, 351. 

Arc, Jacquemin of, 20, 23, 345. 

Arc, James of, father of Joan, 26, 36 ; his 
position, 19, 23 ; does not Interfere with 
Joan after she leaves Domremy, 48 ; at 
the coronation, 156 ; his death, 345. 

Arc, Joan of. See Joan of Arc. 

Arc, John of, 20 ; joins Joan, 73 ; recog- 
nizes Claude as his sister, 345 ; at the re- 
habilitation, 351. 

Arc, Peter of, 20, 73, 345, 351. 

Armagnacs, the, 4, 6, 7, 9, 24, 25, 145, 176, 
229, 249. 

Armagnac, Bernard, count of, 4, 6, 301. 

Arraagnac, Thibaud of, 352. 

Armoises, Robert of, 347. 

Army, its organization in the fifteenth cen- 
tury, 79. 

Arras, 167, 169, 208, 210 ; treaty of, 344. 



Arras, Franquet of. See Pranquet of Ar- 
ras. 

Articles, the seventy, read to Joan, 300 ; 
the twelve, 306, 308. 

Artois, 78. 

Ascension, Feast of, 102. 

Assessors at Joan's trial, 260, 265, 274, 
281, 283, 297, 299, 305, 308, 314, 316, 326, 
332. 

Aulon, John of, Joan's squire, 72, 101 ; at 
Joan's capture, 219 ; at Beaulieu, 236 ; 
testifles.at the rehabilitation, 353, 354. 

Auxerre, 83 ; Joan passes through it, 51 ; 
it refuses to admit Charles VII., 147. 

Avignon, Mary of, propliesies Joan's com- 
ing, 68. 

Aymery, examines Joan at Poitiers, 66. 

Azay le Rideau, 72 n. 

Baillt, Nicholas, makes inquiries con- 
cerning Joan at Domremy, 253. 

Banner, Joan of Arc's, 75, 195, 288. 

Bar, Duchy of, 15, 16, 17, 22, 24. 

Bar, Louis, duke of, 21. 

Bar, Robert, duke of, 237. 

Barr^, John, Joan's godfather, 20. 

Barrette, Bartholomew, with Joan at Com* 
pi^gne, 215. 

Basset, John, one of the assessors, 311. 

Baudricourt, Robert of, captain of Vau- 
couleurs, 21, 32, 35, 39 ; sends Joan back 
to Burey, 40 ; sends her to Chinon, 47- 
49. 

Beauce, the, 97, 126. 

Beaugency, 82, 95, 100, 115 ; siege and cap- 
ture of by the French, 129. 

Beaulieu, Joan brought to, 225; tries to 
escape from, 236. 

Beaup^re, John, examines Joan, 269, 271, 
277 ; directed to visit Joan in her cell 
after her recantation, 329. 

Beaurevoir, Joan, taken to, 237 ; she jumpr 
from one of its towers, 241, 2C3, 298. 



376 



INDEX. 



Beauvais, 253 ; drives out its bishop, 171, 
230. 

Bee, abbot of, 321. 

Bedford, duchess of, her death, 344. 

Bedford, John, duke of, regent of France, 
8, 25, 68, 81, 114, 160, 226; marches 
against Charles VII., 165 ; pubUshes a 
manifesto against, 166 ; at the battle of 
Mont^pUloy, 167 ; retreats to Paris, 168 ; 
goes back to Normandy, 169 ; made a 
canon of Rouen, 254 ; his death, 344. 

Bellier, William, at Cliinon, 57. 

Black Prince, the, 2. 

Blois, 97 ; Joan goes to, from Tours, 76 ; ex- 
pedition leaves, 95. 

Boisguillaume, Wilham, notary at Joan's 
trial, 261. 

Bonny, 143 ; surrenders to the French, 
144. 

Bordeaux, 2, 12. 

Boucher, Charlotte, 102, 352. 

Boucher, James, treasurer of the duke 
Orleans, 99. 

Boucher, JIadame, 101. 

Bouille, William, commissioned by Cliarles 
VII. to make inquiry concerning Joan's 
trial, 349, 353. 

Bourges, 83, 112 ; Joan at, 181, 185 ; sends 
money for the siege of La CharittS, 190. 

Bourlemont, lords of, 15, 17, 18, 27. 

Bouasac, Jolm of, lord of St. Severe, 
marshal of France, 88, 92, 121, 187, 244. 

Brabant, Philip, duke of, his death, 239. 

Bray, 165. 

BrtShal, John, his part in the second trial, 
350. 

Brittany, 11, 199. 

Brittany, John, duke of, 8, 11, 78, 173, 
199. 

Bueil, John of, 142. 

Burey, Little, or Burey en Vaux, 14, 37. 

Burgundians, the, 25, 228. 

Burgundy, 11. 

Burgundy, John the Fearless, duke of, 3, 
4, 229 ; his murder, 7, 25. 

Burgundy, PhiUp the Bold, duke of, 3. 

Burgundy, Pliihp the Good, duke of, 7, 9, 
21, 25, 33, 91, 229, 231 ; his policy after 
Patay, 146 ; goes to Paris, 160 ; negoti- 
ates with Charles VII. after the conse- 
cration, 167 ; makes a truce with him, 
170 : made governor of Paris, ib. ; gath- 
ers an army, 202 ; besieges Goumay, 
209 ; goes to Uoyon, and then besieges 
Choisy, 210 ; besieges Compiegne, 215 ; 
his interview with Joau after her cap- 



ture, 220 ; writes to St. Quentin abo"t 
the capture, 226 ; takes possession of 
Brabant, 239 ; made lieutenant-governor 
of eastern France by the Enghsli, 252. 

Calais, 2, 160. 

Calixtus III. authorizes Joan's second triali 
351. 

Campaign of the Loire, review of, 136. 

Canonization, proposed, of Joan of Arc, 
372. 

Castillon, John of, archdeacon of Evreux, 
makes address to Joan, 312. 

" Castle of the Island," 23. 

Catherine of La Bochelle. See La Ro- 
chelle. 

Cauohon, Peter, count, bishop of Beauvais, 
229 ; negotiates for Joan's purchase, 230, 
238 ; demands that she be given up to 
the English, 232, 238; goes to Beaure- 
voir, 240 ; letter of the University of 
Paris to, 246 ; selected to preside over 
Joan's trial, 249 ; intends to get a con- 
fession from her, 251 ; directs inquir- 
ies concerning her to be made at Dom- 
remy, 252 ; his relations with the chapter 
of Rouen, 254 ; receives permission from 
the chapter to try Joan in Rouen, 255 ; 
English dehver Joan to him, 255 ; hisfeel- 
ing toward her, 256 ; opens his court for 
her trial, 260 ; holds the first public ses- 
sion, 264; examines Joan in her cell, 
283 ; visits her on Easter Eve, 305 ; re- 
fers her answers to experts, 308 ; his 
change of feeling toward her, 310 ; asks 
her to submit her case to those of her 
own party, 313 ; threatens her with 
torture, 315 ; at the recantation, 322 ; 
blamed by the English, 325 ; his plan for 
killing Joan, 327 ; visits her after her re- 
cantation, 329 ; holds sitting of court 
in which she is finally condemned to 
death, 331; his plan for securing a sec- 
ond confession from her, 332 ; visits her 
in her cell on the morning of her execu- 
tion, 335 ; his heirs cited to appear at 
Joan's rehabilitation, 355. 

Ceffonds, 19. 

ChSlons surrenders to Charles VII., 153. 

Champagne, 11, 16 n., 78 ; condition of the 
province, 145. 

Chapter of Rouen. See Rouen, chapter of. 

Charles II. See Lorraine, duke of. 

Charles V., 2. 

Charles VI., his character, 3 ; his death, 8. 

Charles VII., 5, 12, 24; his character, 8, 



INDEX. 



377 



55, 357 ; his coat of arms, 29 ; receives 
Joan at Chinon, 57 ; encouraged by her, 
60 ; goes to Poitiers, 65 ; makes little 
effort to relieve Orleans, 88 ; informed 
of its relief, 114 ; leaves Cliinon, 116 ; at 
Loches, 118 ; at Sully, 128, 1-il ; before 
Troyes, 150 ; consecrated, 157 ; makes a 
truce with Pliilip of Burgundy, 170 ; or- 
ders retreat from Paris, 176 ; makes no 
attempt to ransom Joan, 233, 244, 248 ; 
makes truce with the English in 1444, 
345 ; captures Eouen, 349 ; takes steps 
for Joan's rehabilitation, 349. 

Chartier, William, bishop of Paris, one of 
the judges at Joan's rehabilitation, 351. 

Chartres, 81. 

Chartres, Regnault of, archbishop of Rheims 
and chancellor of France, 54, 165, 207 ; 
at the siege of Troyes, 149 ; at Com- 
pi^gne, 210 : writes to Kheims about 
Joan's capture, 221. 

ChSteauneuf, Charles VII. goes there, 141. 

ChSteau Thierry, Charles VII. at, 163. 

OhcScy, 98. 

Chinon, 50 ; Joan arrives there, 53; 
Charles VIZ. leaves, 116. 

Ohoisy, its situation, 209 ; its siege and sur- 
render, 210, 214. 

Church, Joan's submission to, See Joan of 
Arc. 

Cities of France, their condition, 2, 12. 

Clairoix, 215, 218 ; Joan at, 220, 225. 

Claude, the false Maid, her first apjjear- 
ance ; she is recognized by Joan's bro- 
thers, 345; sends to Charles VII. and 
Orleans, 346 ; goes to Cologne, ib. ; mar- 
ries Robert of Armoises, 347 ; leaves 
him and goes to Orleans, ib. ; finally ex- 
posed, 348. 

Clermont, Charles of Bourbon, count of, 
177, 180 ; commands the French at the 
battle of the Herrings, 89 ; resigns his 
command, 193. 

Colet of Vienne, a royal messenger, goes 
with Joan from Vaucouleurs to Chinon, 
48, 53. 

Commercy, Robert of Saarbruck, lord of, 
21, 23 ; at the consecration, 158. 

Compiegne, 178, 208 ; Charles goes to, 
169 ; treaty made at, 170 ; situation of, 
in the spring of 1430, 206 ; refuses to sur- 
render to Philip of Burgimdy, 207 ; Joan 
at, 210, 216 ; siege of, 215, 240 ; news of 
siege brought to Joan, 236 ; relief of, 
244. 

Corbie, 172. 



Cosne, 143. 

Coudray, tower of, Joan lodged in, 54. 

Coudun, 215, 220. 

Council of Charles VII. discusses what to 
do after the fall of Orleans, 55 ; discusses 
Joan's case, 59, 61, 65, 67 ; advises 
Charles VII. to make use of her, 68. 

Council, English, its composition, 228. 

Council of war at Orleans, 102. 

Courcelles, Thomas of, a delegate of the 
University of Paris, 300 ; votes to tor- 
ture Joan, 316 ; testifies at the rehabili- 
tation, 353. 

Coutes, Louis of, Joan's page, 72, 102 ; 
sees Joan at Chinon, 60 ; testifies at the 
rehabilitation, 353. 

CrcSpy, Charles VH. at, 167 ; Joan at, 215. 

Culant, Louis of, admiral of France, takes 
Bonny, 144. 

Dauphtn, Joan applies the name to Charles 
VII., 35, 148 n. 

Dauphiny, 78, 91 ; prayers offered for Joan 
in, 234. 

Domremy, 14, 15, 18, 23, 26, 263 ; its gov- 
ernment, 19 ; church of, 29, 33 ; attack 
upon, in 1425, 27 ; in 1428, 32, 33 ; exempt 
from taxation, 156 ; inquiry concerning 
Joan at, by the English, 252 ; evidence 
for rehabilitation taken in, 261. 

Dress, Joan of Arc's, 39, 47, 140, 217, 237, 
263, 273, 281, 290, 325, 328, 330, 338. 

Duguesclin, Bertrand, 2, 120. 

Dupanloup, bishop of Orleans, desires that 
Joan of Arc should be canonized, 372. 

Edwaed III., 2. 

England, more centralized than France, 
2,79. 

Erard, "William, 330 ; preaches the sermon 
at St. Ouen, 321. 

Erault, John, examines Joan at Poitiers, 
68. 

Estates of France, meet at Chinon, 83. 

Estivet, John of, 285, 296, 298, 30G, 318 ; 
made prosecuting attorney, 2G1 ; perse- 
cutes Joan, 274 ; insults her, 311 ; his 
reported death, 343. 

Estouteville, cardinal of, 353 ; his part in 
the second trial, 350. 

Fastolf, Sir John, 123, 128, 131 ; com- 
mands at battle of the Herrings, 90 , es- 
capes from Patay, 135. 

Feuillet, Gerard, delegate of the University 
of Paris, 283. 



378 



INDEX. 



Fierbois. See St. Catherine of Fierbois. 

Flanders, 6, 11, 78. 

Flavy, Louis of, captain of Choisy, escapes 
to Compi^gne, 214. 

Flavy, William of, captain of Compi^gne, 
206 ; his part in Joan's sortie, 217. 

Fountain, the magic, 273. 

Foumier, John, curate of Vaucouleurs, ex- 
orcises Joan's spirit, 41. 

France, its condition, 1 ; condition of, in 
the spring of 1428, 78. 

Franquet of Arras, his capture and execu- 
tion, 204. 

Gascont, 78. 
GStinajs, 78. 
Gaucourt, Raoul of, lord of TreTea, 85, 92, 

104, 120, 176, 352 ; commands at Orleans, 

85 ; injured, 86. 
G^vaudau, 221. 
Gien, 91 ; Joan passes through it on her 

way to Chinon, 52 ; rendezvous of the 

army, 142 ; army returns to, 179 ; the 

court at, 181. 
Glasdale, William, commands at Tourelles, 

86, 100 ; drowned, 110. 
Golden Fleece, order of, founded by PhiUp 

of Burgundy, 208. 
Gougli, Matthew, commands at Beaugency, 

129 ; surrenders, 133. 
Gournay surrenders to Burgundy, 209. 
Grasset, Perrinet, captain of La Charit6, 

182, 191. 
Graverent, John, inquisitor - general of 

France, 264 ; authorizes Lemattre to take 

part in Joan's trial, 285. 
Greux, 14, 15, 16 n., 17 n., 18 n., 23; ex- 

empt from taxation, 156. 
Guyenne, 78. 

Harcouet, Cbristofhsb op, 119. 

Henry IV., 5. 

Henry V., 5; his death, 8. 

Henry VI., 8; letter of the University of 

Paris to, 247. 
Herrings, battle of, 48, 52, 58, 63n., 90. 
Hussites, 293 ; Joan's letter concerning 

them, 197. 

Indictment of Joan, 259. 

Informatio prseparatoria, 295. 

Inquisition, the, 257, 260, 264. 

Insanity or inspiration of Joan of Arc, 

^64. 
Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of Charles VI., 
mother of Charles VII., 6, 38, 61. 



jANvnxE, captured by English, 82 ; English 
army at, 129 ; English army leaves, 131 ; 
retaken by the French, 135. 

Jargeau, 82, 85, 115, 119, 123, 190 n., 199; 
capture of, 126. 

Joan of.Arc, not the tyi)e of her age, 1 ; spell- 
ing of her name, 19 ; birth, baptism, and 
education, 20 ; first vision, 28 ; physi- 
cal health, 31 ; life as a girl, ib.; personal 
appearance, 34 ; pretended betrothal, 34 ; 
not an ascetic, 34 ; directed to go to Vau- 
couleurs, 35 ; leaves Domremy, 37 ; goes 
to Vaucouleurs for the fii'st time, 39; 
sees Baudricourt, 40 ; visits Vaucouleurs 
a second time, ib. ; her conversation with 
John of Metz, 42 ; visits Lorraine, Nancy, 
and St. Nicholas du Port, 43-46 ; puts 
on men's clothes, 45 ; returns to Vaucou- 
leurs from Lorraine, 46 ; leaves Vaucou- 
leurs for Chinon, 49, 62 n. ; admitted to 
see Charles VII., 57 ; examined, 58, 60, 
65 ; asks him to surrender his kingdom 
to God, 59 ; reveals a secret to him, 61 ; 
examined at Poitiers, 65 ; her letter to 
the Englisli, 68, 269 ; the extent of her 
mission, 70, 158 ; leaves Poitiers and 
goes to Chinon and St. Florent, 71; 
sends for sword from St. Catherine of 
Fierbois, 74 ; her bamier, 75 ; goes to 
Blois, 76 ; report on her examination at 
Poitiers, 77 n. ; tries to improve the < 
morals of the army, 94, 155 ; her entrance 
into Orleans, 98 ; summons the English 
to surrender, 100 ; the attack on St. 
Loup, 101 ; captures the Augustines, 104; 
attacks the Tourelles, 107 ; wounded, 
108; declines to attack Tnlbot before 
Orleans, 111 ; goes from Orleans to 
Tours, 110 ; at Loches, 118 ; meets the 
Lavals, 121 ; takes Jargeau, 126 ; receives 
Richemont, 130 ; at the battle of Patay, 
135 ; her military success, 126 ; returns 
to Orleans after Patay, 139; dresses in 
briglit colors, 140 ; goes to Sully, 141 ; 
writes to the people of Toumai, 143 ; 
starts for Bheims, 144 ; writes to the 
men of Troyes, 148 ; at the siege of 
Troyes, 150 ; her position in the army, 
154 ; legend of her wish to return home 
after the consecration, 159 ; writes to 
Philip of Burgundy, 161 ; at the battle of 
Mont6pilloy, 167; goes to St. Denis, 174; 
attacks Paris, 175 ; returns to St. Denis, 
177 ; leaves her armor there, 178 ; wishes 
to attack Normandy, 180 ; goes to Bour- 
ges, 181; takes St. Pierre le Moustier, 



INDEX. 



379 



187 ; meets Catherine of La Rochelle, 
188 ; at the siege of La Charity, 190 ; at 
Mehun on the Yevre, 193 ; her letter 
about the Hussites, 197 ; leaves court, 
200 ; her capture foretold by her voices, 
201 ; captures Franquet of Arras, 204 ; 
prays for a child at Lagny, 205, 280 ; 
goes to Coiupiegne, 210 ; at the battle 
of Pont I'Evgque, 212 ; leaves Com- 
pifegne for Soissons, 213 ; at CrtSpy, 
215 ; returns to Compiegne, 216 ; her 
sortie, 217, captured, 219; taken from 
Clairobc to Beaulieu, 225 ; French 
make no attempt to ransom her, 233 ; 
prayers offered for her release, 234; 
at Beaulieu, 236 ; meets the ladies 
of Luxemburg, 237 ; and Haimond of 
Macy, 238 ; purchased for ten thou- 
sand pounds, 239, 243 ; at Le Crotoy, 
246 ; English wish to try her for a witch, 
248 ; taken to Rouen, 250 ; arrangements 
for her trial, 255 ; brought before the 
court, 265 ; controversy about the form 
of her oath, 266, 270 ; fasts during Lent, 
268, 271 ; her allegory concerning the 
sign at Chinon, 270, 284, 286; asked if 
she is in God's grace, 272 ; accused of 
practicing magic, 273, 287 ; visited by a 
spy, 275 ; her expected release, 279 ; her 
dress, 281 ; some of the assessors inclined 
to favor her, 282 ; asked concerning the 
murder at Montereau, 289 ; examined 
concerning her dress, 290, 298 ; her sub- 
mission to the church, 293, 294, 305, 
318 ; a faithful Catholic, 293 ; her prayer 
to her voices, 304 ; faUs ill, 309 ; refuses 
to submit her case to those of her own 
party, 313 ; threatened with torture, 315 ; 
her state of mind previous to her recan- 
tation, 319; brought to St. Ouen, 320; 
defends the character of Charles VII., 
321 ; urged to submit to the church, 
322 ; signs the recantation, 323 ; puts on 
women's clothes, 325 ; her remorse for 
her recantation, 327 ; her treatment 
thereafter, 328 ; explains her recanta- 
tion, 330 ; visited on the morning of her 
execution, 333 ; receives the Eucharist, 
338 ; her execution, 341 ; its effect upon 
those who saw it, 342 ; her rehabilitation, 
349 ; her inspiration or insanity, 364 ; 
her proposed canonization, 372. 
Jurisdiction of Cauchon over Joan, 253. 

KiEKMicHAEL, JoHN, bishop of Orleans, 52, 
91 ; at the consecration, 157. 



La Chapelle, 174. 

La Charite, 143, 183 ; siege of, 190. 

Ladveuu, Martin, 343 ; visits Joan in her 
cell on the morning of her execution, 
334 ; hears her in confession and admin- 
isters tlie Eucharist, 338 ; with Joan at 
her execution, 339 ; testifies at second 
trial, 349. 

La Fontaine, John of, Cauchou's commis- 
sary, 261 ; examines Joan, 283, 286. 

La Hire, Stephen of VignoUes, called, 
22, 25, 55, 56, 94, 98, 105, 125, li/4, 167, 
234, 313. 

Languedoc, 7, 78, 173. 

Lannoy, Hugh of, councilor of Philip of 
Burgundy, 173. 

Laon, surrenders to Charles VII., 160. 

La Pierre, Isambard of, a Dominican friar 
in attendance on the vice-inquisitor, 285, 
343 ; with Joan at her execution, 339 ; 
testifies at her second trial, 349. 

La Rochelle, sends money for the cam- 
paign, 76 ; sends help to Orleans, dl ; 
celebrates the victory of Patay, 140. 

La Rochelle, Catherine of, 188, 194, 281 ; 
testifies against Joan, 302. 

La Rochetaill(ie, John of, archbishop of 
Rouen, 254. 

La Rousse, woman with whom Joan lived 
at NeufchSteau, 32. 

La Touroulde, Margaret, Joan stays with 
her at Bourges, 181. 

La Tremoille, George of, 11, 12, 54, 59, 117, 
130, 199, 207, 221, 313, 361 ; takes Chinon 
in pledge, 55 ; bargains with the EngUsh 
for the safety of his property, S3 ; for- 
bids Richemont to come to court, 139; 
his estates to be given to Richemont, 
173 ; success of his poMcy, 180 ; taken 
prisoner by Grasset, 183 ; his dislike of 
Joan, 234 ; his final removal from power, 
343. 

Laval, Guy of, 129, 157, 174 ; his letter, 120. 

Laval, Andrew of, 120. 

Laxart, Durand, 37-41 ; comes to Rheims, 
156 ; testifies at the rehabilitation, 352. 

Le Crotoy, Joan at, 246, 248, 250. 

Le Ma^on, Robert, 119; advises summon- 
ing Joan to the council of war, 150. 

Lemaltre, John, vice-inquisitor, refuses to 
take part in Joan's trial, 264 ; authorized 
to take part in it, 285. 

Le Puy en Velay, 72 n. 

Le Royer, Catherine, Joan's hostess at 
Vaucouleurs, 41 ; testifies at the rehabil- 
itation, 352. 



380 



INDEX. 



Le Royer, Henry, 41 n. 

Le Vauseul, Joan, cousin of Joan of Arc, 37. 

liigny. See Luxemburg, John of. 

Loches, Charles and Joan go from Tours 
to, 118. 

Loire, the river, 78. 

Loiseleur, Nicholas, visits Joan as a spy, 
275 ; votes to torture her, 316 ; visits 
her in her cell on the morning of her 
execution, 333. 

London lends money for the campaign of 
1428-29, 79. 

Longueville Giffard, prior of, 332. 

Lorraine, 16. 

Lorraine, Charles II., duke of, 11, 22, 44, 
269 ; Joan visits him, 43. 

Lorraine, John of, a gunner, 89, 105, 190 n. 

Louviers, 234 n. 

Luxemburg, Joanna, demoiselle of, 237, 
239, 243. 

Luxemburg, Joanna of, wife of John of, 237. 

Luxemburg, John of, count of Ligny, 224, 
231 ; commands the Burgundians and 
Flemings at ClairoLx, 215 ; sends Joan 
to Beaurevoir, 237 ; left in charge of the 
siege of Compiegne, 239 ; sells Joan to 
the English, 243 ; at the relief of Com- 
piegne, 244 ; visits Joan in prison, 274. 

Luxemburg, Louis of, bishop of ThiSrou- 
anne, 321 ; negotiates for Joan's pur- 
chase, 226 ; at her execution, 342. 

Lyons, 11. 

Mact, Haimond of, 354; with Joan at 
Beaurevoir, 238, 240 ; visits her in prison, 
274. 

Maine, 11, 78. 

Maine, Charles of Anjou, count of, 344, 361. 

Manchon, William, notary at Joan's trial, 
261, 342 ; objects to the confusion at the 
trial, 268 ; refuses to take extrajudicial 
testimony, 275 ; testifies at second trial, 
349. 

Mandragora, 301. 

Margny, 215, 220 ; attack of Joan upon, 217. 

Mary of Anjou, queen of France, 142. 

Mascon, John of, 99. 

Massieu, John, sergeant of Cauchon's 
court, 261, 285. 

Maurice. Peter, a canon of Rouen and one 
of the assessors, addresses Joan, 318 ; 
visits her on the morning of her execu- 
tion, 333. 

Maxey, 14, 16 n., 18 n., 21, 26. 

Mehuu on the Ygvre, castle of, 193, 196. 

Melun, Joan at, 201 ; Joan leaves, 202. 



Metz, 345, 347. 

Metz, John of, 56, 72 ; visits Joan, 42 ; goes 

with her from Vaucouleurs to Chinon, 

48-53 ; testifies at the rehabilitation, 353. 
Meung, 82, 95, 100, 115, 128; capture of, 

by the French, 129 ; retaken by Talbot, 

132. 
Meuse, the river, 14 ; vaUey of, 21, 22, 31. 
Midi, Nicholas, delegate of the University 

of Paris, 283, 329 ; preaches the sermon 

at Joan's execution, 339 ; his reported 

death, 343. 
Miuet, John, curate of Domremy, 20. 
Mont St. Michel, abbey of, 29. 
Mont St. Michel, abbot of, 321. 
Montargis, 79, 147. 
Mout^pilloy, battle of, 167. 
Montereau, 7, 25 ; Bedford at, 166. 
Montesclar, provost of, 252. 
Montfaucon, 190 n. 

Montgomery, an English captain, 212, 215. 
Morel, Aubert, one of the assessors, votes 

to torture Joan, 316. 

Nancy, Joan goes to, 43. 

NeuichSteau, Joan at, 32, 33. 

Nicholas v., 350. 

Nivernais, province of, 78. 

Nobility conferred on Joan's family, 194. 

Nogent, 170. 

Normandy, 1, 11, 25, 78 ; Alen^on's plan to 
attack, 180 ; Estates of, convened to ar- 
range for Joan's purchase, 239 ; feeling of 
the people in, towards the English, 249, 
254. 

Norwich, bishop of, 321. 

Noyon, Philip of Burgundy at, 210. 

Noyon, John of MaiUy, bishop of, 321. 

Oath, controversy concerning form of, at 
Joan's trial, 266, 270. 

Old Market of Rouen, place of Joan's exe- 
cution, 338 ; proclamation of Joan's in- 
nocence in, 356. 

Olivet, 95. 

Olivier, Richard, bishop of Coutances, takes 
part in the rehabilitation, 351. 

Orleans, 13 ; siege of 34, 36 ; plan for attack- 
ing, 81 ; situation of, 84 ; expedition for 
the relief of, sets out, 95; army enters, 
101 ; people of, wish to assault the Tou- 
relles, 106 ; festival of the eighth of May 
established at. 111 ; situation of, after its 
relief, 115 ; Joan returns to, 123, 128 ; re- 
joices after the battle of Patay, 140 ; its 
conduct regarding the false Maid, 346 ; 



INDEX. 



381 



procession in, after Joan's rehabilitation, 
356. 

Orleans, bishop of. See Kirkmichael, John. 

Orleans, Charles duke of, 4, 67, 71, 81. 

Orleans, Joan of, duchess of Alengon, 71. 

Orleans, John, bastard of, afterwards count 
of Dunois, 55, 81, 91, 134, 150, 165, 234. 
352 ; commands the garrison of Orleans, 
52, 87 ; sends officers to Chinon, 52 ; his 
first interview with Joan, 96 ; at the cap- 
ture of the Tourelles, 108, 116. 

Orleans, Louis, duke of, 3 ; his murder, 4. 

Orly, Henry of, his attack upon Domremy, 
27, 28. 

Fabis, mob of, 4 ; taken by Burgundians, 
5, 7, 11 ; in the hands of the English, 64 ; 
news of the battle of Patay reaches, 139 ; 
attack upon, 175, 263; plot to deliver 
it to the French, 198; as a place for 
Joan's trial, 248 ; capture of, 345. 

Pasquerel, John, Joan's confessor, 72 ; tes- 
tifies at the rehabilitation, 353. 

Patay, battle of, 134. 

Peace, effect of negotiations for, 172. 

Perche, 11, 78. 

P^ronne, 208. 

Picardy, 6, 11, 78. 

Pierronne, a woman of Brittany, burnt at 
Paris, 247. 

Poitiers, its situation and importance, 64 ; 
Joan goes there, 65 ; leaves it, 71 ; report 
of Joan's examination at, 77 n. 

Poitou, 1, 142. 

Pont I'EvSque, battle of, 212. 

Pont Ste. Maxence, 208, 209. 

Pothon (see Saintrailles), 56. 

Poulengy, Bertrand of, 43, 56, 72 ; goes 
with Joan from Vaucouleurs to Chinon, 
48-53 ; testifies at the rehabilitation, 353. 

Power, H^liote, her marriage, 196. 

Praguerie, the, 3C2. 

Prayers offered for Joan, 234. 

Prison, ecclesiastical and secular, 267. 

Proof, theory of, 259. 

Provence, 12. 

Provins, Charles VII. at, 163, 165. 

Rabateau, John, 196; Joan lives in his 

house at Poitiers, 65. 
Raymond, Joan's page, 72. 
Rais, Giles of, marshal of France, 92, 116. 
Ransom, methods of, 223. 
Ratisbon, 197. 

Recantation signed by Joan, 323. 
Rehabilitation, sentence of, 355. 



Ren^ of Anjon, duke of Bar, 11, 22, 1G7, 
177 ; his relations with Lorraine and the 
English, 44, 40; at the consecration, 158. 

Rheims, 35 ; correspondence between it and 
Troyes, 147 ; welcomes Charles VII., 154 ; 
Charles VII. writes to, 178 ; Joan writes 
to, 198. 

Rheims, archbishop of. See Chartres, Reg- 
nault of. 

Richard II., 4. 

Richard, Friar, a Franciscan, meets Joan 
at Troyes, 152 ; supports Catherine of La 
Rochelle, 188, 281. 

Richemont, Arthur of Brittany, count of, 
constable of France, 10, 54, 117, 130, 343, 
360, 362 ; arrives at Beaugency, 130 ; with- 
draws from the campaign after Patay, 139. 

Romorantin, 121, 123. 

Rouen, 25 ; plots to surrender to the 
French, 172 ; confinement of Joan in, 250 ; 
castle of, 250 ; taken by Charles VII., 319. 

Rouen, chapter of, 254 ; deliberates on 
Joan's guilt, 312. 

Rouvray, battle of. See Herrings, battle of. 

Saintrailles, Pothon of, 56, 210. 
Salisbury, Thomas Montagu, earl of, 80, 82 ; 

death of, 80. 
Scales, Thomas, Lord, 69, 87, 128. 
Seguin examines Joan at Poitiers, 66. 
Selles, 120, 181. 
Senlis, 167; occupied by French, 169; 

Charles VII. goes there, 174 ; French 

withdraw to it, 214. 
Sept Saux, castle of, 154. 
" Skinners," 22. 
Soissons, 104 ; receives Charles VII., 163 ; 

refuses to admit French, 213. 
Sologne, the, 52, 102, 124. 
Sorel, Armies, her relations with Charles 

VIL, 357, 363. 
St. Aignan, 120. 

St. Catherine, 28, 29 ; manner of her appear- 
ance to Joan, 287, 331. 
St. Catherine of Fierbois, 120, 278 ; Joan 

passes the night there, and hears mass 

in the church, 53 ; she sends there for a 

sword, 73. 
St. Catherine of Siena, 368. 
St. Denis, near Paris, 345 ; Joan goes there, 

174 ; French leave it, 178. 
St. Denis on the Loire, 124. 
St. Fargeau, 146 n. 
St. Honor(5, gate of, 175. 
St. Loup, bastille of, 97 ; captured, 102. 
St. Marcoul, abbey of, 163. 



882 



INDEX. 



St. Margaret, manner of her appearance to 

Joan, 28, 29, 287, 331. 
St. Michael, 28, 341. 

St. Nicholas du Port, visited by Joan, 46. 
St. Ouen, cemetery of, the place of Joan's 

recantation, 320. 
St. Pierre le Moustier, 183. 
St. Quentin, 172, 226. 
St. Remy, 157. 
St. Roch, church in, 179. 
St. Saviour, church of, 339, 341. 
St. Severe. See Boussac. 
St. Urbain, Joan passes through it, 50. 
Stafford, earl of, 274. 
Stewart, an English captain, 212. 
Submission to the church by Joan. See 

Joan of Arc. 
Suffolk, WiUiam Pole, earl of, 67, 68, 87, 

115, 124. 
Sully, 83 ; court goes to, 196 ; Joan leaves, 

200. 
Surienne, Francis of, captain of St. Pierre 

le Moustier, 183. 
Sword, Joan of Arc's, 74, 278 ; broken, 

155. 

Talbot, John, liord, 69, 106, 114, 128, 131 ; 

commands the army which besieges Or- 
leans, 87 ; raises the siege of Orleans, 110 ; 

retreats from Meung towards Janville, 

133 ; captured at Patay, 135. 
Th^rouanne. See Luxemburg, Louis of. 
Three Fountains Brook, 15, 17 n. 
Torcenay, John of, bailiff of Chaumont, 

makes inquiries concerning Joan, 252. 
Torture, 259 ; Joan of Arc threatened with, 

315. 
Toul, 15, 16 n., 34, 46. 
Tourelles, the, 84, 85, 100, 105 ; capture of, 

107. 
Toumai, 78 ; Joan writes to the people of, 

143. 
Tours, 64, 196 ; Joan goes there, 72 ; it 

sends help to Orleans, 91. 
ToutmouiU^, John, visits Joan in her 

cell on the morning of her execution, 

334. 
Tree, fairy, 278. 



Trial, difference between, in English and 

French law, 257. 
Troyes, siege and surrender of, 147. 
Troyes, treaty of, 7, 8, 21, 145. 
Truce with Burgundy, 161, 170, 182, 202. 

UNiVEEsnT OF Paris, 248, 261 ; urges Jo- 
an's purchase, 227 ; writes to Philip of 
Burgundy and John of Luxemburg, 231 ; 
writes to Cauchon and to Henry VI., 
246 ; its judgment concerning Joan, 316 ; 
assists in exposing the false Maid, 347. 

Ursins, John Juvenal des, takes part in the 
second trial, 351. 

Vair, the river, 14. 

Vaucouleurs, 21, 35, 39, 252; siege of, in 
1428, 32 ; its people assist Joan, 47 ; date 
of Joan's departure from, 62 n. 

Vaudemont, Antony, count of, 27, 28. 

VendOme, Louis of Bourbon, count of, 193, 
210 ; brings Joan into the presence of 
Charles VII., 57 ; before Soissons, 213. 

Venette, 215, 218. 

Vergy, Antoine de, 33 n, 

Vienne, the river, 53. 

Vignolles, Stephen of. See La Hire. 

Virginity, Joan's, 34, 288, 370. 

" Voices " of Joan of Arc. See Joan of 
Arc 

Vouthon, 19. 

Wandonnb, Lionbl, bastard of, 232, 239 ; 

and Joan's capture, 219, 224. 
Warwick, earl of, 309, 321 ; forbids Esti- 

vet to go to Joan's cell, 311 ; complains 

of Cauchon's conduct, 325. 
WicUf, 293. 
Winchester, Henry Beaufort, cardinal of, 

164, 309, 320. 
Witchcraft, Joan naturally supposed guilty 

of, 227. 
Wurtemberg, Ulrich, coant of, 346. 

ToLANDB, duchess of Anjou, mother-in-law 
of Charles VII., 9, 117; comes to Poi- 
tiers and examines Joan, 67 ; raises 
money for the campaign, 76. 



